A plea has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking restrictions on media to report charges of harassment against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. The petition sought directions from the government and the Press Council of India to prevent TV, newspapers and social media platforms from publishing reports related to the allegations of sexual harassment against CJI Gogoi.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Rajendra Menon heard the petition which sought “immediate restrictions on news media channels and other platforms” from telecasting allegations of sexual harassment against the CJI and listed it for hearing it on Monday.
The Anti-Corruption Council of India, through its counsel of lawyers, approached the high court for urgent listing of the matter on the basis that telecasting and publication of allegations against the CJI is a “direct assault on the Indian judicial system”.
The Union ministries of Law and Justice and Information and Broadcasting, the Delhi government, the Press Council of India, the Delhi Police Commissioner, and the operations head of WhatsApp, Google, YouTube and Linkedin and the website scroll.in have been sought directions in the filed plea.
Grave allegations of sexual harassment were levelled against the incumbent Chief Justice of India Rajan Gogoi by a former woman employee of the Supreme Court. The court had ordered an internal enquiry into the allegations made against the CJI as well directed probe into the allegations of conspiracy against the Chief Justice. CJI had said this allegation was a larger plot to stop him from hearing important cases the following week. The cases included Rahul Gandhi’s contempt case.
