Story cooked up to plot big conspiracy against Supreme Court: Bar Council of India

A cock and bull story has been cooked up to plot some big conspiracy against the institution of Supreme Court, said the Bar Council of India (BCI) here on Saturday while condemning the sexual harassment allegations against Chief Justice of India Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

"The cock and bull story has been cooked up to plot some big conspiracy against the institution. The Bar is fully standing with our CJI and the Judges of the Supreme Court," the Bar Council of India said in a statement.

"Bar Council of India strongly condemns attempt to malign the image of our Chief Justice of India and the highest judicial institution. The allegations levelled by the lady against Hon'ble Mr J Ranjan Gogoi are all false and concocted," the council said.

The BCI has appealed to the people and entire legal fraternity to stand with the Supreme Court in order to save it.

"I have called an emergent meeting of the Council tomorrow to decide the course of action in this regard. The delegation of Council will also meet the Hon'ble CJI and other Judges to apprise them of the views of the Council," said BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra.

Earlier in the day, a special bench of the Supreme Court met for a special sitting to discuss online media reports of sexual harassment allegations against the CJI.

"The independence of the judiciary is under very serious threat and there is a larger conspiracy to destabilise the judiciary," the Bench said.

A Bench consisting of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna did not pass any judicial order and left it to the wisdom of the media to decide on the publication of reports in order to protect the independence of the judiciary.

"Having considered the matter, we refrain from passing any judicial order at this moment leaving it to the wisdom of the media to show restraint, act responsibly as is expected from them and accordingly decide what should or should not be published as wild and scandalous allegations undermine and irreparably damage reputation and negate independence of judiciary. We would therefore at this juncture leave it to the media to take off such material which is undesirable," the Bench said.

Justice Gogoi also said that employees in the Supreme Court are treated fairly and equally.