Ahead of EVM-VVPAT verification case order, SC calls ECI officer to explain queries
The bench of Justices Sanjiv Khana and Dipankar Datta had last week reserved its verdict on a batch of public interest litigations in the matter.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday summoned the heads of CBI, Intelligence Bureau and Delhi Police after Utsav Singh Bains, a lawyer who claimed a larger conspiracy against CJI Ranjan Gogoi, submitted evidence before the court in a sealed cover.
Bains, who had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying that there was a larger conspiracy to frame the Chief Justice of India on sexual harassment charges, on Wednesday submitted the proof and said, “I have a CCTV footage, which is real evidence. I am submitting this in court. The accused and the mastermind is very powerful”.
Following this, the court said it was concerned about the contents of the affidavit filed by the lawyer and summoned the Directors of CBI and IB and the Delhi Police Commissioner to meet in the chamber at 12:30 pm. It said it will hear the matter again at 3 pm.
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Utsav Bains had on Monday filed an affidavit in which he claimed that he was offered Rs 1.5 crore to represent the former apex court woman employee who levelled the allegation against the CJI.
Bains also said that he was asked to arrange a presser against the CJI at the Press Club of India in New Delhi. He said that he had found loopholes in the case.
The three-judge special bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra and comprising Justices RF Nariman and Deepak Gupta had then directed Bains to explain his affidavit on Wednesday.
A Special Bench was immediately convened after the allegations surfaced on Saturday to look into the “matter of grave public importance touching upon the independence of the judiciary”.
In the unprecedented hearing on Saturday, the CJI had said a larger conspiracy was behind it and that he would not stoop too low even to deny these allegations.
Reports say that all 26 judges of the top court have rallied behind the CJI. The Supreme Court Employees Welfare Association too has come out in support of the CJI.
CJI Gogoi has been accused of sexual assault by a former officer who worked as a junior assistant at the Supreme Court between May 2014 and December 2018.
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