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Notwithstanding a clean chit given to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi by an in-house inquiry committee, the controversy surrounding the unprecedented allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by a dismissed employee of the Supreme Court refuses to die down. The manner in which the three-judge in-house committee headed by Justice SA Bobde went ahead with the inquiry despite the complainant opting out of the proceedings has raised more questions than it answered. First, the panel chose to ignore the woman’s demand to be accompanied by a lawyer and video recording of the closed-door hearings. And then, it refused to make its findings public. The complainant has demanded a copy of the findings of the committee. She does have a right to know why and on what grounds the panel concluded that there was ‘no substance’ in her allegations. Even if one were to presume that the panel’s findings are based on facts and compatible with legal principles, its decision not to share the findings with anyone has only made it vulnerable to attacks from the complainant and activists by providing legitimate grounds.

Justice Bobde panel’s inquiry was set up on the administrative side. On the judicial side, a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra has also ordered a probe by Justice (retd) AK Patnaik into allegations levelled by advocate Utsav Bains that there is a larger conspiracy to frame the CJI in a false sexual harassment case. What procedure Justice Patnaik panel would adopt remains to be seen. Already women activists have started protests against the clean chit given to the CJI. Bar leaders appear to be divided on the contentious issue. There have been reports that some judges had questioned the procedure adopted by the panel and had suggested that a retired SC woman judge should be included in the panel and the complainant should be allowed to be accompanied by a lawyer. But it’s too late to consider these suggestions.

These are trying times for the SC as an institution. Merely following the laid-down procedure is not going to help in a case where the CJI’s rectitude has been questioned. What is needed is a collective decision by judges of the SC that can assure the people and restore the institution’s credibility in the eyes of the common man. Not only must justice be done; it must also be seen to be done. Who knows this legal maxim better than the ‘my lords’?