New Delhi: The Supreme Court said on Wednesday that it will go to the root of the alleged conspiracy and sensational claims made by a lawyer that there was a larger conspiracy to frame Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in the sexual harassment allegations against him.
A three-judge special bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said if fixers continue to work and manipulate the judiciary as claimed, neither this institution nor any of "us" will not survive.
The bench, also comprising justices R F Nariman and Deepak Gupta, asked lawyer Utsav Singh Bains, who has made claims of a larger conspiracy, to file another affidavit by Thursday morning after he claimed that he has some more "incriminating evidence".
The bench said it will take up the matter for hearing on Thursday.
"We will inquire and go to the root of alleged claims of fixers at work and manipulating the judiciary. If they continue to work then none of us will survive... Fixing has no role to play in the system. We will inquire and take it to the logical end" it said.
The bench also clarified that there is no connection in the hearing of Bains' claims of larger conspiracy and the in-house inquiry ordered into the sexual harassment allegations against CJI.
Earlier in the day, the apex court directed chiefs of the CBI, IB and Delhi Police to appear and meet in chambers the three judges who are hearing his claim that there was a larger conspiracy to frame.
Justice S A Bode to conduct inquiry
Justice S A Bobde, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, was Tuesday appointed to conduct an in-house inquiry into the allegations of sexual harassment levelled against the CJI.
When contacted, Justice Bobde, who is next to the CJI in seniority, confirmed the development.
He said being the number two judge, the Chief Justice of India has appointed him to look into the allegations of sexual harassment charges levelled by a former woman staff.
Justice Bobde told PTI that he has decided to form a panel by inducting two apex court judges -- N V Ramana and Indira Banerjee.
"I decided to have Justice Ramana in the panel as he is next to me in the seniority and Justice Banerjee as she is a woman judge," Justice Bobde said.
He said he has already issued notice to the woman who had written letters to the judges and sworn on affidavit about the alleged sexual harassment.
The first hearing will be conducted on Friday and the apex court secretary general has also been asked to be ready with all documents and materials.
"This is going to be an in-house procedure which does not contemplate representation of advocate on behalf of parties. It is not a formal judicial proceeding," Justice Bobde said.
He clarified that there is no time frame to to complete the inquiry and future course of action will depend on "what comes out of the inquiry" which will be "confidential".
A three-judge bench headed by CJI on Saturday had held an unprecedented hearing in the wake of allegations made against Justice Gogoi.
Describing the allegations of sexual harassment against him as "unbelievable", the CJI had convened the extraordinary hearing at the Supreme Court during which he said a larger conspiracy was behind it and he would not stoop so low even to deny these allegations.
Justice Gogoi had said some "bigger force" wanted to "deactivate" the office of the CJI.
After the Saturday's hearing, some lawyers body and jurists had criticised the CJI for constituting the bench comprising him, though he had recused himself in the middle of the hearing leaving it for justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna to pass the order.