NEW DELHI: A former female staff member of the Supreme Court has accused Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment, news website Scroll reported on Saturday. The woman staffer said the top judge sexually harassed her at his residence office in October 2018. The 35-year-old woman on Friday sent a letter to a 22-judge panel of the apex court, explaining her ordeal. Rejecting the allegations, the Chief Justice of Indian Supreme Court said he did not deem it appropriate to reply to them. "All I would like to say is this, undoubtedly every employees are treated fairly and decently. This employee was there for a month and half. Allegations came and I didn't deem it appropriate to reply to the allegations" said CJI Gogoi was quoted as saying. Indian today wrote that Justice Ranjan Gogoi was sworn in as the 46th Chief Justice of India in October 2018. A son of former minister of Assam, he is the first judge from the country's northeast to be appointed as the Chief Justice of India. Ranjan Gogoi was among the four judges who had famously held a press conference to protest the inner workings of the country's Supreme Court.<doc-sep>Ranjan Gogoi The Caravan Gogoi In the recent past allegations of impropriety have required judicial officers to take support from legal officers o… https://t.co/RUSGlPfke3 — Apar Gupta (@apargupta84) 1555749549000 For the CJI to react to a sexual harassment complaint by convening a special bench on the spot, terming it an high-… https://t.co/sx0I0gyYZx — Gautam Bhatia (@gautambhatia88) 1555739661000 Regular due process here, would likely require complaint to be decided by Supreme Court's ICC. In a case like this… https://t.co/teGhEYqwws — Karuna Nundy (@karunanundy) 1555740958000 The matter should have gone directly to the senior-most judges after the CJI however. Opining on and deciding proce… https://t.co/bfGkBwTMUC — Karuna Nundy (@karunanundy) 1555742291000 Whether the allegations against the CJI are true or false, this is an absolutely atrocious procedure he has followe… https://t.co/03ZuWRmArT — Mihira Sood (@mihira_sood) 1555738832000 In an unprecedented move by the Supreme Court, a special sitting has been called for, which is currently underway. The sitting includes a Special Bench of Supreme Court judges, which includes the Chief Justice of Indiaand Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna and has been called to hear a "matter of great public importance" mentioned by solicitor general Tushar Mehta.In a report carried byon Saturday, a former employee of the Supreme Court accusedof sexual harassment and persecution. In a sworn affidavit, the former employee describes two incidents of molestation by the CJI, which allegedly took place in October, last year.During the special sitting, Gogoi claimed that there is a larger conspiracy to destabilise the judiciary, which has remained independent and said that there is some bigger force behind the woman, with criminal track record, making sexual harassment charges against the CJI.He further added that the former employee, who has levelled allegations against him, was in jail for four days because of her criminal track record and was also warned to have good behaviour couple of times by police.“This is unbelievable. I should not stoop low even in denying it.” Rs. 6 lakh 80 thousand is all I have as bank balance,” The CJI continued. "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. 6,80,000. Independence of judiciary under very very serious threat. I had to tell this from the judicial seat,” he further added.Gogoi said that since he was to hear important cases next week, this was an attempt to dissuade him from hearing the important matters. Next week, he is scheduled to hear a contempt petition against Rahul Gandhi, the release of the biopic based on PM Modi as well as the petition seeking deferment of polls in Tamil Nadu on the charge of huge bribes being paid to voters.The Supreme Court has asked the media to exercise restraint and wisdom in reporting unverified charges against CJI, which would undermine independence of judiciary.In the affidavit, copies of which were sent to 22 Supreme Court judges, the former employee wrote "I say that the CJI has misused his position, office and authority and abused his clout and power to influence the police. ""I have been victimised for resisting and refusing the unwanted sexual advances of the CJI and my entire family has also been victimised and harassed due to that," the affidavit further stated. The former employee further wrote, "He hugged me around the waist, and touched me all over my body with his arms and by pressing his body against mine, and did not let go. ""He told me, ‘hold me’, he did not let go despite the fact that I froze and tried to get out of his embrace by stiffening and moving my body away," the affidavit further read.In a covering letter, which was attached along with the affidavit, the lady in question said, "I did not have the courage to make this complaint earlier because I was terrified of the consequences to me and to my family which I was threatened of and which have indeed come to pass subsequently. "Multiple lawyers took to Twitter to express their thoughts on the situation. While Amar Gupta said, "The dangers are obvious", Gautam Bhatia commented on CJI's reaction to the allegations.Advocate Karuna Nundy said, "The matter should have gone directly to the senior-most judges after the CJI."<doc-sep>A special bench of the Supreme Court on Saturday held an urgent hearing after a woman, in an affidavit to several sitting judges, accused Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment. A three-judge bench headed by Justice Gogoi was constituted after a sworn affidavit by the woman, copies of which were sent to the residences of 22 top court judges, became public on Saturday. During the course of the hearing, CJI Gogoi denied the allegations and said that the "judiciary is under threat today". "This is unbelievable. I should not stoop low even in denying it,” CJI Gogoi said. The former employee has described two incidents of alleged molestation by Gogoi in her affidavit, both of which allegedly took place in October 2018, only days after he was appointed as the CJI. Justice Gogoi alleged a conspiracy behind the allegations and said, "There has to be bigger force behind this, they want to deactivate office of CJI." "I will sit on this bench and discharge my duties without fear and favour till my tenure is over," Chief Justice Gogoi said. "I have taken this unusual and extraordinary step of sitting in court today because things have gone too far," he said. Judiciary can't be made a scapegoat, CJI Gogoi said. Confirming that a letter by the woman has been received by several sitting judges, Supreme Court Secretary General Sanjeev Sudhakar Kalgaonkar said all the allegations made by the woman concerned are malafide and have no basis. "No doubt, it is a malafide allegation," he said. (With inputs from PTI) For in-depth, objective and more importantly balanced journalism, Click here to subscribe to Outlook Magazine<doc-sep>Share: INDIA - India’s Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has been accused of sexual harassment by a former Supreme Court employee. The 35-year-old woman has filed an affidavit alleging two instances of misconduct in October last year, shortly after Mr Gogoi was appointed. She says her family was victimised after she refused the advances. A statement said Mr Gogoi, 64, “totally denied” the “false and scurrilous” accusations. He has labelled them an attempt to “destabilise the judiciary”. What does the woman allege? The allegations were filed in a sworn affidavit that has been sent to Supreme Court judges. In it the married woman, who cannot be named under Indian law, alleges the misconduct occurred on 10 and 11 October at the offices in Mr Gogoi’s residence. She alleges Mr Gogoi “hugged me around the waist, and touched me all over my body with his arms” and pressed his body against her. When he did not stop, she says she “was forced to push him away from me with my hands”. The woman says Mr Gogoi then told her not to mention what had happened or her family “would be greatly disturbed”. The woman alleges she was transferred three times, then fired in December. She says her husband and brother were both suspended from their jobs. In March a resident of the city of Jhajjar filed a complaint alleging she had kept money she had taken as a bribe to get him a job at the court. She denies the accusation and says she attended a police station with family members in March where they were subjected to abusive treatment. “It now seems like the harassment, victimisation, and torture will not stop unless I speak out about the origin and motive for the harassment,” she alleges in the affidavit. What has Mr Gogoi said? The first response came in a statement from the secretary general of the Supreme Court on the chief justice’s behalf. It says the allegations are “completely and absolutely false and scurrilous and are totally denied”. It says the woman “had no occasion to interact directly with the chief justice”. The statement refers to the criminal case of bribery lodged against the woman, saying: “It appears that these false allegations are being made as a pressure tactic to somehow come out of the various proceedings which have been initiated in law.” It says the employee was dismissed “as per procedure” after an incident of “inappropriate conduct”. Mr Gogoi himself addressed the issue in front of a special bench of the Supreme Court on Saturday. “I don’t want to stoop so low as to answer these charges,” he said. “All employees of the Supreme Court are treated respectfully by me.” He added: “There are forces that are trying to destabilise the judiciary. There are bigger forces behind these allegations hurled at me.”<doc-sep>
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Saturday held an extraordinary hearing after a former employee of the apex court accused the Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, of sexual harassment on two occasions in October last year and persecution after she resisted his alleged sexual advances. A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Gogoi himself, was constituted to deal with the matter following a notice by the court’s registry that the sitting was to deal with a matter of “great public importance touching upon the independence of the judiciary”. At the special hearing — prompted by the fact that copies of a sworn affidavit by the woman sent to the residences of 22 apex court judges became public on Saturday — Justice Gogoi rubbished the allegations as “unbelievable” and hinted that there may be a “bigger force behind this” that wants to “deactivate the office of CJI.” The CJI also hinted that the allegations of sexual harassment against him could be due to the fact that the Bench led by him will deal with “many, many sensitive cases” next week. Supreme Court judges have held press conferences in the past, or issued a statement to the press to refute personal charges. That the CJI choose to sit in his own court, with two male judges, to deny allegations of sexual harassment and more drew a lot of criticism from lawyers and judicial activists on social media. “This is unbelievable. I don’t think I should stoop low even to deny these allegation,” he said. The woman’s allegations were carried by several news websites on Saturday, along with a response from the Supreme Court’s secretary general who refuted the allegations.