[BREAKING] Supreme Court closes case examining conspiracy against judiciary initiated after sexual harassment allegation against Ranjan Gogoi J.

The Supreme Court on Thursday closed the suo-motu case registered by it in 2019 to examine alleged conspiracy against judiciary in the wake of sexual harassment allegations that had surfaced against then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi (In Re : Matter Of Great Public Importance Touching Upon The Independence Of Judiciary). .The matter titled "In Re : Matter Of Great Public Importance Touching Upon The Independence Of Judiciary" was closed today by a Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian on the ground that recovery of electronic evidence in relation to the case is unlikely. ."Two years have passed and possibility of recovery of electronic evidence now is unlikely. Three-member committee headed by the CJI SA Bobde has already submitted a report. Suo motu case is closed and proceedings are disposed off. There is no requirement to keep the case going on," the Court ordered..The Court acknowledged that the report submitted by one-member judicial committee of retired Justice AK Patnaik to examine the possibility of a conspiracy against the former CJI did not rule of such a possibility.Further, the Bench also adverted to a letter by the Director of Intelligence Bureau that some conspiracy might have ensued due to the tough decisions by Justice Gogoi like preparation of NRC in Assam. "There are strong reasons to believe that some kind of conspiracy might have been undertaken against CJI.".The court stated "Justice Patnaik report also acknowledges that the existence of a conspiracy cannot be completely ruled out and this has been so opined as Justice A.K. Patnaik has not been able to obtain various records including electronic records of Whatsapp, Telegram etc."."The veracity of the allegations leveled by lawyer Utsav Singh Bains could not be verified completely due to the limited access of records and other collaborative material", said Supreme Court quoting the report of Justice Patnaik..The learned Judge has recorded in the final paragraph that the Director of IB in his letter dated July 5, 2019, has stated that on account of the then Chief Justice of India taking serious tough decisions like in the case relating to National Register of Citizens (NRC), there was strong reason to believe that persons who were unhappy with those decisions hatched a conspiracy against the then Chief Justice of India. A reference has also been made to certain tough administrative decisions taken to streamline the process in the RegistryReads the order .The bench further noted that Justice A K Patnaik committee was not able to get various records like WhatsApp messages and electronic records..The veracity of the allegations leveled by lawyer Utsav Singh Bains could not be verified completely due to the limited access of records and other collaborative material. Simultaneously the report on the existence of conspiracy cannot be completely ruled outsaid the top Court quoting the report of Justice Patnaik..The Court nevertheless closed the case since the internal committee had already given a clean chit to the judge and recovery of evidence pertaining to alleged conspiracy would now be unlikely. .The allegations against Justice Gogoi surfaced in April 2019 when four news outlets published details of complaint filed by a Supreme Court staffer against Gogoi J.She alleged that she was sexually harassed by CJI Gogoi while working as a Junior Court Assistant in October 2018. In a representation sent out to Supreme Court judges, she had detailed these allegations while seeking the initiation of an inquiry against CJI Gogoi..The very same day that the allegations were published, the Court registered the suo motu case which was listed the same day in open court. This was on a non-working day.Justice Gogoi himself sat on the Bench and took strong exception to the news reports while denying the allegations.Later, the matter was sent to another 3-judge Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra to examine the larger issue of alleged conspiracy. This was after an advocate, Utsav Bains submitted certain affidavits to the court in sealed cover purportedly containing sensitive information about such conspiracy.Meanwhile, a court-appointed committee constituted to look into the allegations gave a clean chit to Justice Gogoi in the sexual harassment allegations..(Read order)