NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday disposed off the suo motu proceedings initiated to probe larger conspiracy to frame ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi in alleged sexual harassment case.
Justice Kaul-led bench said as 2 years have passed since the matter first came to light, recovering electronic data and evidence will be difficult.
It also said since in-house inquiry committee has gone into the merit of sexual harassment charges and that “no purpose would be served in continuing the suo motu proceedings.”
The suo motu proceedings was initiated on SG Tushar Mehta’s request a day after sexual harassment charges against Gogoi were published in some news portals on April 19, 2019.
It was followed by a complaint from Adv Utsav Bains, who alleged conspiracy behind these charges.
The SC bench of Justices S K Kaul, A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian in its order said Justice Patnaik report acknowledges that wider conspiracy to level sexual harassment charges against the CJI Gogoi “cannot be ruled out”.
The report had said it could have been because of tough stand taken by then CJI on judicial & administrative side.