CJI harassment case: SC fixes matter to another bench

New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Saturday fixed to another bench, the case regarding sexual harassment allegations of a former apex court staffer against Chief Justice (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi.
A bench of the top court, headed by CJI Gogoi, and also comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna, said, another bench will hear the matter.
The apex court sat on Saturday to hear the case on a suo motu basis, taking cognisance of certain media reports, which highlighted that a woman (former assistant of the CJI) had accused the CJI of sexual harassment.
The top court heard it after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta mentioned it and said it is a “matter of serious and great public importance”.
The CJI-led bench did not pass any orders on the allegations and asked the media to show restrain, to protect the independence of judiciary.
”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.
”We accordingly decide what should or should not be published, as wild and scandalous allegations undermine and irreparably damage the reputation and negate the independence of judiciary. We would, therefore at this juncture, leave it to the media to take off,” the bench of the top court of the country, said.
The woman was a former junior court assistant in the Supreme Court from May, 2014 till December 21, 2018, when her services were unceremoniously terminated.
She claimed in her complaint that with great regret and anguish, she had written the letter to narrate the sexual harassment and consequent victimisation that she and her family have had to go through and the facts and circumstances, which disclose the reason why this happened.
”The extent of victimisation has been such that apart from my services being terminated in December 2018, in the same month my husband and his brother, both head constables with the Delhi Police have been suspended,” she claimed in her complaint.
”My husband, and his other younger brother, who was given a job in group D category in the Supreme Court under the Chief Justice’s discretionary quota in October 2018, was also terminated, without giving any reasons, in January, 2019. Not only this, a false and frivolous FIR was also registered against me on March 3, 20l9,” she contended.
The Secretary General of the Supreme Court said the allegations were ”completely and absolutely false and scurrilous and are totally denied”.