SC to hear plea alleging conspiracy to target CJI

New Delhi, April 24 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that it would examine the allegation that former sacked employees of the apex court have ganged up to target the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi by framing him in a false case of sexual harassment.

Lawyer Utsav Singh Bains has also alleged that there has been fixing of judgments, as well as of benches.

Directing further hearing of the matter at 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, the bench of Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Deepak Gupta asked Bains to file an affidavit containing further information backing his allegations by Thursday morning.

In its order, the court made it clear that its hearing was limited to the allegations of conspiracy to frame CJI Gogoi and to fix judgments and benches, and would in no way have any bearing on the inquiry being carried out by the three-member committee of judges on the administrative side.

The court will also examine whether Bains could claim privilege over certain material and documents supporting his allegations.

Noting that the bench would be deciding on the question of whether any privilege could be claimed over the documents related to the allegations, Justice Mishra said that in his opinion, no such confidentiality could be claimed - a view supported by the Attorney General K. K. Venugopal, the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and the Supreme Court Bar Association President Rakesh Khanna.

Earlier in the day, the Directors of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), as well as the Delhi Police Commissioner, met the three concerned judges in their chambers.