On 19 April 2019, a former Court Officer alleged that she was sexually harassed by the Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi. She made two main allegations: 1) she suffered unwanted physical contact, 2) she and her family subsequently suffered victimisation.
On 20 April, Chief Justice Gogoi called a special hearing. He denied the allegations. Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna sat with him on the Bench. No judicial orders were passed and the Chief Justice stepped aside. The record of proceedings do not name the Chief Justice's presence.
On 23 April, a Bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Rohinton Nariman and Deepak Gupta began hearing case where the main contention was whether there existed a conspiracy to smear the Office of the Chief Justice. An advocate by the name of Utsav Bains claims to have evidence of the larger conspiracy. The Bench directed retired Justice AK Patnaik to conduct an inquiry into the allegations and submit his findings in a sealed cover to the Bench.
Also on 23 April, the second most senior judge, Justice SA Bobde formed an an informal 'In-House Committee' to look into the sexual harassment allegation. Its mandate was to assess the allegation of unwanted physical contact (not that of victimisation). The Committee initially comprised Justices SA Bobde, NV Ramana and Indira Banerjee. Justice Ramana recused himself after the complainant objected to his inclusion on the ground of his close friendship with the CJI. He was replaced by Justice Indu Malhotra.
On 6 May, the In-House Committee declared it found 'no substance' in the allegations.
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