Confronted with evidence of its own officials being involved with corporate houses and middlemen to 'fix' judicial orders, the Supreme Court on Thursday set up a one-man probe panel to clean up the system. To that end, a former apex court judge has been appointed, and he will be assisted by three investigation and intelligence agencies — CBI, Delhi Police and Intelligence Bureau.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, RF Nariman and Deepak Gupta assigned retired justice AK Patnaik, who served as an SC judge during 2009-2014, to tackle the probe but no time frame was fixed.

Justice Patnaik was also given full freedom to examine the contents of the sealed envelopes submitted to Court by a young lawyer Utsav Singh Bains, that gave graphic details to prove this conspiracy.

Prior to passing the order, the bench observed, "A day has come when we need to rise to the occasion and tell the rich and mighty that they cannot run the Supreme Court. They will understand they are playing with fire."

Although Bains claimed in his affidavit the recent sexual harassment plaint by a suspended SC employee was part of a bigger conspiracy to unseat the CJI, the bench clarified, "We make it clear this inquiry shall not be about the alleged misbehaviour involving CJI. This is with respect to the contents of the affidavits (given by Bains), whether the affidavits are correct or not."

Justice Patnaik has his task cut out for him as allegations levelled by Bains in his affidavit are "sensational".

He alleged some corporate figures and middlemen were involved with court staff in influencing listing of cases.

The bench, which had praised the CJI on Wednesday for taking on the black sheep in the Court's Registry, said on hursday, "We will be maligned and our reputation killed if we take on them. But people of the country must know the truth... Is the court being remote-controlled or is there a systematic attempt against judiciary?"

The word ‘remote-controlled’ was used by a former judge who had called a press conference against then CJI Dipak Misra and used it to describe how the CJI functioned.

FRAME-UP?

Justice Patnaik, appointed by apex court to hold inquiry into sensational allegations of a lawyer about ‘larger conspiracy’ to frame CJI and fixing of benches in SC, said he will apply his mind on controversy after getting all relevant material