New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Saturday denied charges of sexual harassment against him, and described the complaint by a former court staff as a bigger plot aimed at attacking the office of the CJI and independence of the judiciary.
"There is nothing more valuable than reputation of a judge. And when that is attacked, it becomes shocking... independence of judiciary is under very very serious threat. If the judges have to work under these conditions, good people will never come to this office," said the CJI.
Visibly upset after the woman's complaint was reported in detail by at least four web portals, the CJI made it clear that he was not going to be a part of the committee that will examine the charges against him.
"The issue (of sexual harassment charges) will be considered by my brothers. Other senior judges will look at it, not me. But I had to convene this bench as my responsibility. I have taken this unusual step to say that the judiciary is under threat," Justice Gogoi told Attorney General KK Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.
He added: "No judge is going to decide cases if this is the kind of attack he or she gets. Reputation is the only thing we have got and even that is under attack. This is the reward a CJI gets after 20 years of selfless service. I have a bank balance of Rs 6.8 lakh. Even my peon has more assets than me. I am saying all this because I am extremely hurt. And this, I thought, should be told from the highest seat of judiciary."
The CJI also narrated in detail the antecedents of the woman complainant and how two FIRs were lodged against her and that the court administration had also forwarded a complaint to the Delhi Police about her verification.
"I don't think this can be a plot of a junior court assistant. There is a bigger plot. They want to deactivate the office of the CJI," said Justice Gogoi, pointing out his bench is scheduled to hear some important cases next week and that this could be an attempt to dissuade him from hearing these matters.
Some of the matters the CJI's bench is set to hear in next week include the criminal contempt matter against Congress president Rahul Gandhi, the row between the West Bengal government and CBI and the petition seeking deferment of polls in Tamil Nadu on the charge of huge bribes being paid to voters.
Justice Arun Mishra, who was also the part of the bench, questioned how the judges can function when there is no faith in the system.
The bench, concluded the hearing, by clarifying that it was passing no orders and that the issue of publication should be left to the wisdom of media.
Justices Mishra and Khanna suggested that media should exercise restraint and wisdom in reporting unverified charges against CJI which would undermine independence of judiciary.
"We are not passing any judicial order but leaving it to media to act responsible to ensure that independence of judiciary it protected," said the bench.
The CJI also named the four portals - Scroll, Leaflet, The Wire and The Caravan - who he said went ahead with publishing the unverified charges by a woman with criminal antecedents and said there runs a common thread among them.
The CJI had called for a special sitting of the bench on Saturday after stories of sexual charges against him were published on these web portals and her complaint also started floating on the social media.
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