CJI case: Lawyers and activists detained for protesting against inquiry panel’s decision outside SC

The Delhi Police on Tuesday detained lawyers and women’s rights activists for protesting outside the Supreme Court, a day after the top court’s in-house committee cleared Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment charges.

The protestors were taken to Mandir Marg police station, and were released around four hours later. According to reports, prohibitory orders under Section 144 were imposed around the top court.

On Monday, a three-member inquiry committee dismissed a complaint of sexual harassment registered against Gogoi by a former court employee. The court’s secretary general said the committee found “no substance in the allegations” made by the 35-year-old woman in the complaint sent to 22 judges on April 19. The court official also said that the inquiry committee’s report was not liable to be made public.

The complainant said she was very disappointed with the panel’s decision and “extremely scared and terrified”. “Today, my worst fears have come true, and all hope of justice and redress from the committee have been shattered,” she said, responding to the inquiry committee’s decision.

In her affidavit to the 22 Supreme Court judges, the complainant had called for an inquiry into Gogoi’s actions. She has accused the chief justice of victimising her and her family, and claimed that they had had lost government jobs because of him. Criminal cases were also filed against them, she claimed in the affidavit. On April 30, the complainant withdrew from the inquiry, saying she had not been allowed to bring a lawyer to the deposition and had not been informed about the procedure that would be followed.