Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi on Wednesday said that he should not have been present on the bench that was hearing the suo moto case regarding the sexual harassment allegations against him. The former CJI also said that the woman who had made the allegations against him was reinstated in service during his working term. He made these remarks while speaking to a private television at the launch event of his autobiography "Justice for the Judge" which happened in New Delhi on Wednesday. Gogoi's tenure as the CJI has given India several important verdicts including the decades-old dispute over the Ayodhya land and the French-made Rafale purchase issue.
Key Points:
1."In hindsight, I have should have not been on the bench... we all make mistakes. Even the CJI is human. No harm in accepting it," former CJI Gogoi said at the launch event of 'Justice for the Judge'. Justice Gogoi has spoken up about the sexual harassment allegation for the first time and his autobiography also covers the whole matter in a chapter titled, "Supreme Allegations and My Quest for Truth".
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2. He reveals in the book that he first heard of the allegation on April 19, 2019, when several Supreme Court judges and media outlets had received a complaint from the employee. On the same day, the Supreme Court (SC) had decided to sign a petition seeking his discharge from duties as the CJI till the case is decided. "Obviously, the plan was to stop me, with immediate effect, from attending to any administrative or judicial work," Justice Gogoi writes in the book.
3. To resolve the unforeseen immediately, Justice Gogoi has ordered a special sitting of a bench the next day itself, headed by him and others including Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjeev Khanna, he also received a severe backlash for being the judge in his own case. Looking back at the incident, he said everyone makes mistakes and that he should have not been on the bench to hear the case which directly affected him. "What was the order passed (by that bench)... does that order give me clean chit?," he told the private channel.
4. In addition to the bench, a special in-house panel headed by Justice S.A. Bobde with top court judges was constituted to look into the allegation against the then CJI. Justice S.A. Bobde was the next Chief Justice after him. "But I put my neck out and gave the noose to Justice Bobde. He could have hanged me and got an extra 7 months of extra tenure (as Chief Justice)", if the in-house committee had ruled against him. He further added that it is an internal inquiry and people have been found guilty.
5. On being questioned whether the female employee was reinstated, Gogoi replied that the woman was reinstated back during his term as the CJI and not after. The staff had written to Justice Bobde seeking an appointment on humanitarian grounds and when Justice Bobde asked the then CJI what to do, Gogoi had asked Bobde to take the call. The woman and two other employees were reinstated by Justice Bobde after that and the Gogoi said he is a compassionate man.
