In the recent past, we saw a curious turn of events as allegations of sexual abuse were leveled at the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Ranjan Gogoi and that having failed, some fringe elements are planning street protests. Though many lawyers accuse the perennial accuser and feminist lawyer Indira Jaising for raking up or helping a dismissed lady staffer in preparing petitions alleging sexual abuse charges, the recent protests engineered by certain Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) give wider ramifications to this case. What is their motive in accusing a 65-year-old Gogoi, who has never been caught in such allegations before?

Gogoi’s temper

In legal circles, Ranjan Gogoi was infamous for losing his temper off and on, thereby creating many enemies due to his obiter dicta (off-the-record speaking or utterances) or uncontrolled comments at petitioners. In his entire career, he was known as a strict person who tends to lose control often. He is set to retire on November 18, 2019, and some people or lobbies are fed up with him and want him to resign, say many lawyers who are in the know of the current developments. These NGOs and disgruntled lawyers might be behind this rent-a-cause move to malign the CJI, they say.

Lobby at work?

PGurus contacted several advocates and journalists on the Supreme Court beat. They point out a dirty corporate lobby behind this entire episode. All these things were engineered after two Court Masters were dismissed and are now facing Police probe on the manipulations in the Order involving Anil Ambani’s Rs.580 crores due to an Ericsson-related contempt case. After Gogoi became the Chief Justice as many as six to eight such fraud staffers were terminated and this lady happens to be one of them. So there was a huge discontentment brewing and some people have encashed their anger, said a very senior Advocate. He adds that certain elements in the Government, Intelligence system and a big lobby of politicians-cum-lawyers cutting across party lines, and some perennial petitioners who were not so happy with Ranjan Gogoi’s unpredictable nature tried to get rid of him through this malicious allegation. “They thought on the day media splashed the news, Gogoi would resign,” he said.

Anyway, the case is over after the ex-lady staffer boycotted the in-house proceedings. Now the Communist Party of India (CPI)’s women wing National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) is conducting stage-managed protests on the streets. This small organization’s General Secretary is Annie Raja, the wife of CPI National Secretary D Raja. For the past 15 years, its President is the former IAS officer Aruna Roy, who is a close confidant of former Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan is also seen supporting these protests and supporting the allegations of the dismissed lady staffer, caught for malpractices. Many Gay-Lesbian activists were also seen in the sparsely attended protests. In fact, there were more media persons than protestors, which leads one to question the motives of this uncouth cabal.

But some lawyers say that there is also a role for certain elements in Government in engineering this sexual abuse charges. Some accuse Congress leadership of backroom operations in the entire episode, firing from the shoulders of CPI and the rent-a-cause NGOs. Those who doubt the role of certain Government elements point out that this lady was in touch with Delhi Police and Intelligence Bureau officials from January, citing her complaint pending in Union Home Ministry in January. They accuse, the Deep State of bargaining or sending messages to the CJI and argue that Congress’s top leadership was not happy with the stands of the Chief Justice in several sensitive cases ranging from National Herald, Rafale case, etc.

At the outset, it is very clear that many are unhappy with Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and they got a good item to BLACKMAIL him. Many thought Gogoi would resign. But Gogoi outsmarted all of them by not resigning and declared his intent to finish his tenure till November 18, 2019.