No substance in sexual harassment charge against CJI, says SC in-house panel

A Supreme Court in-house panel, inquiring into alleged sexual harassment charges against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, on Monday said that there was “no substance” in her allegations. The committee report will, however, not be made public.

A short cryptic release issued by the Supreme Court secretary general said that the in-house panel had submitted its report to the “next judge competent to receive the report”. The in-house panel was headed by Justice S.A. Bobde.

The other two judges on the panel were Justice Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee.


A copy of the report was also sent to the CJI, the release said.

Complainant had earlier walked out of the proceedings citing panel’s refusal to allow her a
lawyer, treat her with sensitivity

“The in-house committee has submitted its report dated 5.5.2019 in accordance with the in-house procedure to the next senior-most judge competent to receive the report and also sent a copy to the judge concerned namely the Chief Justice of India.

“The In-house committee has found no substance in the allegations contained in the complaint dated 19.4.2019 of a former employee of the Supreme Court of India.”

Citing an earlier precedent, it said: “… It has been held that a report of the committee constituted as a part of the in-house procedure is not liable to be made public.”