Recently, the present Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi has been accused of Sexual harassment of a woman who was the former employee of the Supreme Court of India. She wrote to all the judges of the apex court of the nation accusing the chief Justice of persecution after she repelled his alleged sexual advances on two junctures in the month of October last year. It can be called noteworthy that the woman used to work as a junior court assistant at the Supreme Court of India.

She is a 35-year-old woman and is the mother of an 8-year-old girl. In particular, this woman who made these contentions of sexual harassment against CJI Ranjan Gogoi was an anterior underling and an employee of his court and worked under him for around two years starting from October 2016 to October 2018. She was directed as a junior court assistant to his Lordship Gogoi’s court as an auxiliary or in particular, a replacement for another Junior Court Assistant who was gone on leave.

She sent an affidavit to all the judges of the Supreme Court of India affirming in that affidavit all the instances and events that had happened during the time period of her being employed under Justice Gogoi whereby she specified the allegation of the offense of sexual harassment.

Hereby further she told in her affidavit that CJI Gogoi used to take a predilection and a liking to her professional and individual interests who thereby rendered her uncomfortable as well as apprehensive. She stated that sometimes and he would ask her to send him good morning messages time and again and a text message in the evening when she reached back to her house. Consequently, it started trouble for the former employee. She wrote in her affidavit that within a matter of a few weeks of this escapade, she was transferred three times and was therefore reassigned to different legal vicinities.

At the first instance, she was transferred to Centre for Research and Planning, Secondly to the Admin Material Section and then thirdly to the Library Section of the Supreme Court. Reports illustrated that her husband and brother in law were also suspended and deferred from the police. If this was not ample, in March 2019 she was charged with a grave offense of bribery.

Notwithstanding the above allegations, the CJI said whilst answering them that, ‘this is unbelievable. I should not stoop low even in denying it. What I want to tell the citizens is that the judiciary of this country is under a serious threat.’ However, another thing to be noteworthy is that the in-house committee of the Supreme Court if India, gave CJI a clean chit and dismissed all the allegations of sexual harassment that were put upon him by the woman.

The three-member in-house inquiry committee formed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi himself to probe and examine the sexual harassment charges against him gave him an exonerating acquittal and said that it had found no substance as well as affluence in the contentions raised by the former SC employee.

Written by: Shreya Saxena