CJI Ranjan Gogoi given clean chit by SC probe panel on sexual harassment complaint

May 6: In a significant development, the three-judge in-house inquiry panel of the Supreme Court gave its Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi clean chit in the sexual harassment charges against himself levelled by the former SC staffer.

The panel, led by Justice SA Bobde, said the report has been submitted to the Chief Justice and the next senior judge of the top court, and said that as it was an informal inquiry, it is “not liable to be made public”. “The in-house inquiry committee has found no substance in the allegations in the complaint dated April 19 of a former employee of the Supreme Court,” the Supreme Court said in a statement. Justices Indira Banerjee and Indu Malhotra were the other two judges on the panel.

The former woman apex court staffer had in an affidavit sent to 22 SC judges described two incidents of alleged molestation, days after Justice Gogoi was appointed CJI last October, and her subsequent persecution. The woman, who had worked at Justice Gogoi’s home office in Delhi, alleged she was removed from service after she rebuffed his “sexual advances”.