SC asks lawyer to present proof he was asked to frame CJI Ranjan Gogoi

Court to hear the matter on Wednesday, directs police to give protection to lawyer

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to Advocate Utsav Singh Bains to appear on Wednesday with material supporting his stand that he had been approached by people to “fix” the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in connection with the sexual harassment allegations against him. A three-judge bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Rohinton Nariman and Deepak Gupta also asked the Delhi Police to provide “adequate police protection” to Bains as he had claimed there was a threat to his life.

Bains had filed an affidavit claiming that he had been approached by certain people to frame CJI Gogoi in an alleged sexual harassment case. The advocate had also claimed that he was offered Rs 1.5 crore by a person named Ajay to represent the top court’s former woman employee who has accused CJI of harassing her.

The top court has said Bains should on Wednesday be present in the court to validate his claims that he was informed by reliable sources that a corporate figure had tried to approach a judge of the apex court to get a favourable order in a high-profile case listed but was unsuccessful. The other claim that Bains has made in his affidavit says that he was “privy to certain events involving the said corporate figure and will submit in a sealed cover the events and list of the involved persons to this court”.

The claims were made by Bains after an unprecedented hearing at the top court during which Gogoi had said that the allegations of sexual harassment against him were part of a larger conspiracy to “deactivate” the office of the CJI,  and that he would “not stoop so low even to deny them”. This bench was assembled on Saturday after a former female employee of the apex court sent a detailed affidavit to the residences of 22 judges, giving details of the alleged harassment.

In her letter, the junior court assistant, who was employed with the Supreme Court from May 1, 2014, to December 21, 2018, alleged that she was harassed at the CJI's home, and that she was removed from her job without giving any reason.