The Supreme Court on Thursday closed a 2019 case related to the sexual harassment allegations against former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, observing that “there was some reason to believe that some judgments had led to a conspiracy being hatched” against him, reported Bar and Bench.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said that a three-member committee headed by current Chief Justice SA Bobde had already submitted a report. “The suo motu case is closed and proceedings are disposed off,” it added. “There is no requirement to keep the case going on.”

“Report by the former judge enquires whether decision by then CJI on judicial side had triggered off conspiracy against him,” the court added. “Two years have passed and possibility of recovery of electronic evidence now is unlikely.”

In April 2019, a woman who had earlier worked as a junior court assistant at the Supreme Court, alleged in an affidavit that Gogoi had made sexual advances on her at his residence office on October 10 and October 11, 2018. She had sent a complaint to 22 judges of the Supreme Court on April 19, 2019, and called for an inquiry into the actions of Gogoi, who she said not only harassed her, but was also responsible for her subsequent victimisation and that of her family.

Gogoi had denied the allegations during a special hearing he called on April 20, 2019. The ex-chief justice had said he did not “deem it appropriate” to reply to the allegations but claimed they were part of a “bigger plot”, possibly one to “deactivate the office of the CJI”.