‘My Presence In Parliament Will Be An Opportunity To Project Views Of The Judiciary Before The Legislature’: Justice Gogoi Defends His RS Nomination

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“I have accepted the offer of the nomination to the Rajya Sabha because of strong conviction, that the legislature and the Judiciary must at some point of time work together for Nation-building,” said former CJI Ranjan Gogoi while speaking to an Assamese new agency Partidin Time.

The President of India on Monday nominated the former CJI to Rajya Sabha, to fill the vacancy caused due to the retirement of one of the nominated member, Senior Advocate K.T.S. Tulsi.

Justice Gogoi has since received criticism from all quarters, regarding how his acceptance of the nomination breaches the principle of separation of powers, enshrined in the Constitution.

Speaking up in his own defence, Justice Gogoi said,

“My presence in Parliament will be an opportunity to project the views of the Judiciary before the legislature and vice versa… Let God give me the strength to have an independent voice in the Parliament.“

Justice Gogoi, who was appointed as the Chief Justice of India on 3rd October 2018, had retired on 17th November 2019. The bench headed by him had delivered various controversial jujdements, (that inordinately leaned in the government’s favour) in cases like Ayodhya, Rafale etc. He had also piloted the updation of NRC in Assam.

The government’s decision to nominate him to the Rajya Sabha, in the backdrop of these judgments, is now being called a matter of “quid pro quo”.

This is not the first time that a former CJI is becoming a member of Rajya Sabha, as ex-CJI Justice Ranganath Mishra was elected to the Upper House on Congress ticket in 1998. However, it is certainly the first time that a CJI will acquire a seat in the house by nomination.

Justice Gogoi is now the second person from Assam to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha, after educationist Mrinal Miri.

Reacting sharply to the nomination, former Judge of Supreme Court Justice Kurian Joseph said;

We have discharged our debt to the nation” was the statement made by Justice Ranjan Gogoi along with the three of us on 12th January 2018. I am surprised as to how Justice Ranjan Gogoi. who once exhibited such courage of conviction to uphold the independence of judiciary, has compromised the noble principles on the independence and impartiality of the judiciary.”

Pertinently, both Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Kurian Joseph were among the group of then senior judges, who conducted a press conference in January 2018 against then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, alleging arbitrary allocation of important cases to some specific benches.