Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi (File Photo | EPS) 
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Retired SC judge A K Patnaik to head probe into claims of conspiracy against CJI 

SC said that the inquiry committee will not go into the issue of sexual harassment allegations against the CJI and the outcome of the Justice Patnaik probe will not affect in-house inquiry.

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Supreme Court on Thursday appointed former court judge Justice A K Patnaik to hold inquiry into claims of lawyer alleging conspiracy against CJI.

A special bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Rohinton Nariman and Deepak Gupta earlier in the day had reserved its order on setting up the inquiry committee.

During the course of the hearing, advocate Utsav Bains, who made the claim about a conspiracy to frame Justice Gogoi, submitted an additional affidavit on the direction of the court.

Continuing the hearing in the afternoon session, the SC bench ordered for the inquiry committee to probe into Bains' claims and asked the directors of CBI, IB and Delhi Police to render cooperation to Justice Patnaik as and when sought by the latter.

The apex court said that on the completion of inquiry, Justice (Retd) Patnaik will file a report in a sealed cover before the court after which the matter will be heard again.

SC also noted that the inquiry committee will not go into the issue of sexual harassment allegations against the CJI and the outcome of the Justice Patnaik probe will not affect the in-house inquiry.

Meanwhile, Justice N V Ramana, part of 3-member in-house inquiry panel set up to examine the allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, recused himself from it on Thursday.

The development comes a day after the former apex court woman employee, who levelled the allegations against the CJI, wrote a letter to the panel expressing reservation over the inclusion of Justice Ramana.

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