Supreme Court forms panel to look into the conspiracy targeting CJI

As debate around the conspiracy in the ‘sexual harassment’ controversy involving the CJI heats up after stark claims made by Utsav Bains, the Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices Arun Mishra, Rohinton Nariman and Deepak Gupta has appointed Justice (Retd) AK Patnaik to inquire into the claims.

Utsav Bains in a Facebook post had alleged that he was offered a bribe in order to “help frame CJI in the sexual harassment case by lawyering and organising a press conference against the CJI”. Following the claims made by Utsav Bains, the Apex court had summoned him and on Thursday, hearing the matter has appointed Justice (Retd) AK Patnaik to inquire into the claims. Utsav has also submitted ‘evidence’ in a sealed envelope to the three-judge bench.

These allegations just come ahead of important cases like the Ayodha Ram Mandir case which is nearing end of mediation, the Rafale review case, Rahul Gandhi contempt case and Assam NRC case. Senior voices in the legal domain also came forward and questioned whether this is an attempt to discredit and malign the Supreme Court before important and critical judgments.

Speaking on the case to Republic TV, Legal stalwart, Soli Sorabjee, said, “It’s a very sorry state of affairs where allegations are made against the CJI. I feel very sorry about it,” on Friday.

Senior advocate KTS Tulsi has also called the entre sequence of events as “Unfortunate”, He said: “It is very unfortunate. It has put the entire reputation of the court at stake. Let the truth come out”.

Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, speaking to Republic TV, said “There is an enquiry going on against the allegation separately against the Chief Justice, that’s an in-house enquiry and that is completely independent from this and the two are not connected with each other at all”.

The Apex court has also requested CBI, IB and the Delhi police to assist Justice (Retd) AK Patnaik for the purpose of the investigation.

Utsav Bains Affidavit Dated: 22 April, 2019

“13. That, when the Deponent outright refused the said bribe of Rs 50 lakh offered by the said Ajay to frame the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, the said Ajay then increased the sum to Rs 1.5 crore to the Deponent following which the Deponent asked him to immediately leave his office.”

Utsav Bains in his post had claimed that, “a lobby of disgruntled judges, SC fixers, corporate scamsters and a few corrupt politicians – all who have meticulously planned the conspiracy to force the CJI to resign as their ‘corrupt works’ were not going through in SC”.

CJI had also alleged this to be a bigger conspiracy to sabotage the Judiciary. “They cannot catch me on money, so they have brought up this”, said CJI. The whole controversy came into light when, four leftist media outlets, namely Scroll, Leaflet, The Wire and The Caravan had published a report, in which an ex-staffer of the Supreme Court had alleged Sexual Harassment by the CJI.

With the enquiry into the alleged conspiracy the Supreme Court has also set up an in house panel to inquire into the allegations of ‘sexual harassment’ against the CJI. Justices Bobde, Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee are part of this in-house panel.