NEW DELHI: Senior advocate Indira Jaising said the CJI should have “absolutely not” been part of the Bench.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising on Saturday questioned why Attorney General K K Venugopal appeared in the Supreme Court during the hearing on the sexual harassment allegation against the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

Jaising, the founder of The Leaflet that was among the four portals which reported the allegation against the CJI prompting the extraordinary hearing, suggested that Justice Gogoi should withdraw from hearing any matter related to the government.

In a series of tweets, Jaising, who was additional solicitor general during the UPA-II regime, asked since the "government has so vociferously defended the Chief Justice of India, should he not recuse from hearing any cases relating to the government?"

"What have the allegations of sexual harassment by a dismissed woman employee of the SC got to do with the Government of India? Why should the Attorney General for India appear is such a case?" she tweeted.

In her response, senior lawyer Vrinda Grover said it was the “cardinal and basic rule of fair play that a person cannot be a judge in his own cause”.

“In the circumstances of this case, where the charge of sexual harassment, victimization, and intimidation has been made against a person holding the highest judicial office of the country, it is imperative that for the credibility of the institution, and confidence of the people in the judiciary as well as for the right to justice of the woman complainant, no hearing presided by the CJI ought to have been held,” Ms. Grover said.