No evidence but can’t rule out conspiracy against Gogoi: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday closed its suo motu proceedings in a case pertaining to a possible conspiracy to defame former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi in a sexual harassment complaint by a female staffer after a one-man committee probing the matter said there was no corroborative evidence to believe such allegations though these could not be ruled out.

A bench of justices SK Kaul, AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian directed that the committee report prepared by a former Supreme Court judge, justice (retd) AK Patnaik, be placed back in a sealed cover.

While stating that there was no evidence, the former judge in his report also cited a letter by the chief of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to acknowledge the possibility of a conspiracy by those disgruntled by the former CJI’S judicial rulings on “serious tough” issues, such as the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and tough steps taken by him on the administrative side to streamline the registry.

The one-man committee was asked to examine allegations by a lawyer, Utsav Singh Bains, who filed an affidavit before the court giving details of a “larger conspiracy” by a lobby involving fixers, corporate accused and disgruntled judges and politicians.

The committee was not mandated to go into the merits of the sexual harassment complaint levelled against the former CJI.

In April 2019, the court took suo motu cognisance of these allegations and constituted the committee to examine their veracity. The director, IB, commissioner of Delhi Police, and director, Central Bureau of Investigation, were asked to assist the committee in its work.

The bench, after going through the report, said, “The report has also taken note of the limited investigative powers and access to records which it had and based on those materials and evidence before him, it has been opined that it is not possible to find corroborative material qua the allegations of Utsav Singh Bains made in the affidavit.” Simultaneously, it noted, “The report also acknowledges that the existence of a conspiracy cannot be completely ruled out and this has been so opined as justice Patnaik has not been able to obtain various records including electronic records of Whatsapp, Telegram, etc.”

A possible conspiracy was attributed in the report to a letter written by the IB director on July 5, 2019 which stated “on account of the then Chief Justice of India taking serious tough decisions like in the case relating to National Register of Citizens (NRC), there was strong reason to believe that persons who were unhappy with those decisions hatched a conspiracy against the then Chief Justice of India.”

The report also made a reference to certain tough administrative decisions taken to streamline the process in the registry. The bench told solicitor general Tushar Mehta who alone appeared in the suo motu proceedings, “We are of the view that two years having passed and the possibility of recovery of electronic records at this distance of time is remote, especially since the scope of the enquiry and the power of the learned judge is limited, no useful purpose will be served by continuing these proceedings.”

The court closed the case that was initiated by a bench headed by former SC justice Arun Mishra. During the hearing on Thursday, the bench noted the fact that with the lapse of time, even the in-house proceedings on the complaint against the then CJI had been concluded. This in-house committee was headed by the present CJI Justice SA Bobde along with two other judges – justices Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee. In November 2019, justice Gogoi retired and three months later, the court staffer who levelled the sexual harassment allegations was reinstated in service.