Conspiracy to frame CJI: Justice Patnaik calls for more info from CBI, IB and Delhi Police
New Delhi: Former Supreme Court judge A K Patnaik Monday said he has called for some more information from the intelligence agencies - CBI, IB - and Delhi Police to find the truth behind the allegations of "larger conspiracy" to frame the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.
Justice Patnaik was appointed by the Supreme Court to hold an inquiry into the sensational allegations including the fixing of benches after a lawyer claimed that a larger conspiracy was at work in the apex court.
Utsav Singh Bains had made the allegations when the apex court was hearing the sexual harassment charges against the CJI in which the three-member in-house inquiry committee did not find any substance.
When contacted, Justice Patnaik told PTI over phone from Cuttack, Odisha, that the inquiry will take some more time as he has to peruse more documents to find out the truth.
While ruling out the possibility of submitting the report by July, the retired apex court judge said he has gone through the documents already supplied to him but to find clues he needs more documents.
Justice Patnaik said he is on vacation at his home town and will recommence the work of inquiry on coming back to Delhi in July.
"I will have to call for some more material from all the three -- CBI, IB and Delhi Police Commissioner -- as after going through the material received by them, I think some more material is required.
"I have to find out what clues I am getting. whether there is any confirmation about it or not. If there is no confirmation then I will have to take a different view. If more material is coming in, I will have to pursue it (the matter)."
However, he refused to make any comment on the prima-facie view he holds about the allegations. "I have called for some material from the CBI, IB and the Commissioner of Police, Delhi. They have sent the materials and I have gone through them."
"I can't disclose everything to media. I am supposed to submit the report in a sealed cover. If I start disclosing everything, all the witnesses will be removed," he said.
"We have to find the truth. Unless I find out what is the truth, I can't give the report. The report will take some time," he said, adding that there was a need for giving more time to complete the task and no time frame can be given for it.
While appointing Justice Patnaik on April 25 to hold an inquiry into the allegations of Bains, the apex court had made it clear that the probe by him shall not be with respect to the "alleged misbehaviour" involving the CJI.
The top court had said that outcome of inquiry by Justice Patnaik "shall not affect the in-house procedure/ inquiry which was pending in the administrative side".
An in-house inquiry committee comprising senior most judge Justice S A Bobde and two women judges of the apex court -- Justices Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee -- on May 6, gave clean chit to the CJI on the allegations of sexual harassment levelled by the former woman employee of the Supreme Court.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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