An "impartial enquiry alone" would test the veracity of sexual harassment allegations against CJI Ranjan Gogoi and strengthen the 'Independence of Judiciary', senior advocate and noted jurist Rakesh Dwivedi said Monday.
Favouring enquiry, the noted lawyer asked, "Can we discover the conspirators without an enquiry. The impartial enquiry alone will tell us whether the charges are true or false and once the falsity is established the conspirators would be found".
This is not a matter of conflict between political parties -- Left, Right or Centre and all should support the impartial enquiry which affords the employee full opportunity, he said, adding "whether CJI should stop functioning for a while or not should be decided by the full court".
Dwivedi said he felt that the CJI should stop functioning "when and if the enquiry committee finds a prima facie case against him. But enquiry, if avoided, would be a serious setback to Independence of Judiciary".
On Saturday as well, he had termed as "unusual, extraordinary and unlawful" the hearing into the matter by a three judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India himself.
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He also said on Monday that the people must stand "rock solid" with the judiciary and the Judges to protect the independence of the judiciary.
Has however said: "What does this mean in the present context of a very serious charge of sexual harassment levelled by an employee of the court against the CJI."
He said he was "sceptic" to theory that there was larger conspiracy to "deactivate the CJI and wreck the independence of the Judiciary".
Terming the theory as a "counter charge", he said that it should not be a device to "pulverise" the former woman employee "to silence or to withdraw or drop her complaint".
"If some one is conspiring against Judiciary then we must find out who are those," he said.
On independence of judiciary as a basic feature of the Constitution, he said, "It is a concept which ensures functional independence from the influence of the Executive, Parliament and outside influences. If this protects the judges from misdemeanours then it is going to be a disaster for judges right down to the District Courts can use this to brush aside serious charges."
He said an employee, who worked with the CJI, has filed an affidavit with evidence and chose to circulate complaint to the judges of the Supreme Court.
"That was a right step. Web Portals only published the same. They also said that court has rubbished the charge. That was a fair exercise of Media Rights under Article 19 of the Constitution. Now only an enquiry can clear the mess and determine who is at fault and guilty," Dwivedi said.
Are we relapsing to feudal monarchic system where "the Crown does no wrong", he asked.
"I am confident that the Socialist Democratic Republic would give the lady employee a chance of hearing. Kasab was given. She is a little Indian," he said.
Dwivedi questioned the hurry in setting up of the bench and the presence of the CJI on it.
"But look how the CJI speedily constituted the Bench with himself as presiding. To hear what? A suo motu petition. Where were the pleadings and facts or reliefs? That was unfurled in courtroom by the CJI. So he was the petitioner. And was the charged person. And he also presided. He also argued. The other two judges simply joined and signed an order.
"I assume they had not made any enquiry earlier and were not briefed by CJI and they sat with open mind. Upon hearing the CJI they should have issued notice to the lady and the web portals if they were convinced. Why was notice notice not issued. Reason is obvious. It was suo motu (on it own) and Judex in causa sua (judging own cause). And who suffered. Democracy, Liberty, Rule of law, Justice, Equality. Verily the Preamble of the Constitution....," he said.
He said it appeared that the full court was not consulted before the bench sat of extra-ordinary hearing on last Saturday.
On Saturday, the CJI had described the allegations of sexual harassment against him as "unbelievable" and had said that a larger conspiracy was behind it and he would not stoop too low even to deny these allegations.
The CJI was not part of the judicial order which was passed by Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna.
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