The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed anguish at the “systematic attempts to malign” the judiciary and “remote-control” it through “money power or political power”, resolving to send out a message that the courts are not “vulnerable”.

The bench was dealing with an affidavit from advocate Utsav Bains, who has alleged a conspiracy by a corporate-underworld nexus to target Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, whom a dismissed apex court employee has accused of sexually harassing her.

“Don’t think that the Supreme Court of India can be remote-controlled by anyone on this earth, whether through money power or political power,” the bench of Justices Arun Mishra, R.F. Nariman and Deepak Gupta remarked.

“The day has now come when we have to rise and tell the rich and powerful that you can’t do this with us. You are playing with fire. Though we don’t want to take names but everybody tries to influence every time there is a big matter.”

The observations came after solicitor-general Tushar Mehta requested the bench to order a special investigation team.

“You (Mehta) are provoking us to speak. We are not inclined to say, but now listen…. The situation has gone so far that today letters are written even in relation to pending matters. Whenever big persons are involved, this happens in this court and we have some senior advocates of this court appearing for them,” Justice Mishra said.

“A message must go to the country that the courts are not vulnerable. We would also like to send a clear message to the influential people with money and power that they cannot interfere in the proceedings of the Supreme Court and there cannot be any match-fixing in the judicial system.”

Justice Mishra said there were serious allegations that needed to be probed.

“We are anguished to see how it (the apex court) is being treated in the last three-four years. It is your institution, not ours. Judges come and go. If things continue like this it will die. This institution will not survive,” he said.

“There are systematic attempts to malign this institution. So many things have not come out in the open, because nobody knows the truth. The people of this country must know the truth, because this cannot go on. There can’t be any remote control…. This organisation, that organisation… letter-writing in pending matters, all these things can’t go on.

“The powerful of the country feel they can run the country, but sorry it cannot happen. People are also trying to manage the registry by money power. When somebody tries to improve things, he is killed or maligned. It’s simple: ‘If you take action, we will malign you’ seems to be the objective.”

Justice Mishra said the Supreme Court owed part of its reputation to legal luminaries like K. Parasaran, Nani Palkhiwala, Fali S. Nariman and the present attorney-general, K.K. Venugopal.

“But today we are hearing of bench-fixing. Only three to five per cent of people are bringing a bad name to this institution,” he said.