The Bar Council of India on Tuesday claimed there was “something fishy” in the sexual harassment complaint against Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and alleged “strong backing/support” behind the complaint, Bar and Bench reported.
The Bar Council of India also expressed solidarity with the Supreme Court and its judges. “...Bar will never allow the institution to [be] let down and or get demoralized in this fashion,” it said.
On Monday, a three-member inquiry committee had rejected the complaint made against Gogoi and the court’s secretary general said the panel had found “no substance in the allegations”. The court official also said that the inquiry committee’s report was not liable to be made public. The woman who accused Gogoi of sexual harassment on Tuesday asked the committee that dismissed her complaint to give her a copy of their report.
The Bar Council, in an open letter signed by chairperson Manan Kumar Mishra, said Indians were wise enough to understand the “dirty game” played to spoil the judiciary’s dignity. Mishra claimed a “few glaring things” in the “so-called sexual harassment”.
“If you examine the complaint and the annexures and see the way facts are narrated; the manner in which she claims to have recorded everything in her mobile while at police station, and the way she has been dealing with police, the Courts, CBI, IB, everyone; if one analyses these things carefully, you will find something fishy,” the letter said.
The letter said the in-house committee’s decision to clear Gogoi of the sexual harassment charges was “totally just and proper”. “The committee has taken the decision after examining the materials and everything carefully, it has adopted the right procedure which is required in the case,” the letter said, according to The Hindu. “We should not doubt the decision of our three-judge committee; otherwise it will send a very wrong signal and there shall be no end to such malicious complaints against the responsible authorities discharging important functions.”
Mishra said before questioning the validity of the in-house committee’s inquiry, the woman did not file a complaint or first information report.
Mishra requested the members of the Bar Council of India to “drop this episode from their minds and the gossiping as it is causing serious harm to the institution”. “One should imagine the mental agony suffered by a respectable man because of someone’s conspiracy to malign his image and to lay so much undue pressure upon him.”
Also read: Why SC’s reasoning for not disclosing report of sexual harassment inquiry against CJI doesn’t fly
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