Retired judge to probe role of fixers in Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday appointed a retired top court judge, Justice A.K. Patnaik, to probe allegations that disgruntled employees had ganged up to “frame” Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on the false charge of sexual harassment after their dismissal from service.

A special bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Rohinton Nariman and Deepak Gupta passed this order in the suo motu proceedings relating to the “matter of great public importance touching upon the independence of the judiciary” after the charges levelled by a former woman employee of the court against the CJI.

In its order, the bench said considering the affidavits filed by Utsav Singh Bains, an advocate, that there was an attempt to “fix” the CJI, “we appoint Justice A.K. Patnaik, a retired judge of this court, to hold an inquiry into the allegations made in the affidavits. However, at the same time, we make it clear that this inquiry shall not be with respect to the alleged misbehaviour involving the Chief Justice of India. This is with respect to the content of the affidavits, whether the affidavits are correct or not.”