[dropcap]T[/dropcap]HE emergency hearing on "freedom of judiciary" by a special three member bench of the Supreme Court on Saturday, April 20, 2019, did not deem it fit to know the other side of the story.
In a grim reminder of the final ex-parte disciplinary hearing against the former junior court assistant when she was dismissed from service in December last year, the bench hurriedly declared the 35-year-old former employee of the top court "a woman with criminal antecedents" whose "unscrupulous allegations" are likely to shake people's faith in Indian justice system.
The complainant was appointed in May 2014 and was later deputed to work in Justice Ranjan Gogoi's court in October 2016.
Soon after a section of media published reports this morning, alleging sexual harassment and consequent victimisation of the former employee of the top court by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi in October last year, the bench comprising CJI Gogoi, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna convened the special hearing.
Earlier, a notice issued by the Supreme Court Registry in the morning stated that the special sitting pertained to a matter of "great public importance touching upon the independence of the judiciary".
Incidentally, neither the former woman employee nor her lawyers or representatives were reportedly called for the special sitting of the apex court.
In her absence, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta made serious allegations against the complainant, who has written to 22 judges of the court alleging sexual harassment by the CJI and intense persecution of her family. Her letter was accompanied by a sworn affidavit that detailed the sequence of events that took place, including the harassment that she and family faced in the hands of the police after she was summarily dismissed from the employment of the Supreme Court.
Mehta said that "the allegations appear to be a blackmail technique".
While the CJI alleged that the complainant had a criminal background and that there were two police cases against her, Justice Mishra stressed that the "faith of people in the judiciary will be shaken", terming the allegations of sexual harassment against the CJI as "unscrupulous".
Attorney General KK Venugopal told the court that earlier also two such instances of alleged sexual harassment against a former apex court judge and a senior advocate had come to light and in those cases the media was asked not to publish anything.
Referring to the allegations against the CJI, Venugopal maintained that the news portals had "brazenly published" the matter.
Earlier, in an email sent through the office of Secretary General of the Supreme Court, the CJI had denied the allegations.
At the outset of the hearing, CJI Gogoi maintained that he had received communications from four media houses– The Wire, Caravan, Scroll and the The Leaflet – regarding allegations of sexual harassment against him.
"This is unbelievable. I don't think I should stoop low even to deny these allegations," the Chief Justice, who was heading the three-judge bench, said during the hearing, alleging a conspiracy behind the allegations.
Asserting that the allegations against him had cropped up at a time when he is scheduled to hear important cases next week, he said, "There has to be bigger force behind this, they want to deactivate office of Chief Justice." But I will sit on this chair and discharge my judicial functions without any fear… Things have gone too far. Judiciary cannot be made a scapegoat."
"They cannot catch me on money, so they have brought up this. This is the reward a CJI gets after 20 years and a bank balance of Rs 680,000," he said in his defence, adding that "Independence of judiciary is under very serious threat. I had to tell this from the judicial seat."
On media coverage of the case, the special bench, however, refrained from passing any judicial order, saying that they "leave it to the discretion of the media to exercise restraint and act responsibly."
The order issued after the special sitting was signed by the other two only two judges, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna.
The record of proceedings also do not not feature CJI Gogoi's name in the coram, according to the Livelaw.
"Having considered the matter, we refrain from passing any judicial order at this moment leaving it to the wisdom of the media to show restraint, act responsibly as is expected from them and accordingly decide what should or should not be published as wild and scandalous allegations undermine and irreparably damage reputation and negate independence of judiciary. We would therefore at this juncture leave it to the media to take off such material which is undesirable," the order reads.
The three member bench stated that an appropriate bench will hear the sexual harassment allegations against CJI.
Meanwhile, a Delhi court on Saturday said it would hear on April 24, a police plea to cancel the bail of the complainant in a cheating and criminal intimidation case.
Previously, the police had sought cancellation of the bail granted to the woman on March 12. An FIR for the alleged offences of cheating, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy was lodged against her on March 3, 2019 after a complaint was filed by a resident of Jhajjar in Haryana, at the Tilak Marg Police Station.
As per the FIR, she allegedly took an amount of Rs 50000 from a Jhajjar resident on the Supreme Court premises in 2017 on the promise of arranging a job for the complainant in the Supreme Court.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Khurana listed the matter for Wednesday as the accused woman was not served with the copy of the police's plea.