SC junks plea for probe against ex-CJI Gogoi; removes litigant from court

Miffed over the allegations levelled by a litigant against former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea and ordered the security personnel to remove him from the courtroom.

The litigant levelled allegations against the former CJI following which a bench comprising Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma asked the security personnel to escort him out of the courtroom.

Arun Ramchandra Hublikar filed a plea against his "illegal termination" from the service while seeking an in-house inquiry against the former CJI for dismissing a plea previously in the service dispute.

On September 30, a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud took a strong exception to the submissions seeking an inquiry against the former CJI and asked him to remove the judge's name from the list of parties.

On Tuesday, the bench was irked when the litigant took the name of the former CJI during the hearing.

"We are going to impose a cost on you. Don't take the name of any judge. There is nothing in your case," the bench said.

The litigant, however, retorted, "How can you say that there is nothing in my case. How can it be said...It is injustice against me. At least, I should get justice before my death."

The bench subsequently said it will dismiss the petition following which the security personnel was directed to remove the litigant from the courtroom.

The CJI-led bench had previously asked him to remove the name of the former CJI from the list of parties as a condition precedent to list his petition for the hearing.

"How can you file a PIL with a judge as a respondent? There has to be some dignity. You cannot just say I want an in-house inquiry against a judge. Justice Ranjan Gogoi was a former judge of the Supreme Court," the CJI had remarked.

"He retired as the Chief Justice of India. You cannot say I want an in-house inquiry against a judge because you did not succeed before the bench. Sorry, we cannot tolerate this", the bench had said.

After Hublikar assured deletion of the name of the former CJI from the list of parties, the CJI ordered listing of the petition which came up for hearing on Tuesday.

Justice Gogoi retired on November 17, 2019.