Gogoi said that his presence in parliament will be an opportunity to project the views of the judiciary before the legislative and vice versa.
Guwahati| On Monday, in a surprising move, the former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi was nominated to Rajya Sabha by President Ramnath Kovind. Talking to reporters in Guwahati, Gogoi said that his presence in parliament will be an opportunity to project the views of the judiciary before the legislative and vice versa.
On Tuesday, while answering why he accepted the nomination, Gogoi told reporters, “I will go to Delhi probably tomorrow. Let me first take the oath, then I will speak in detail to the media why I accepted this.”
He further added, “I have accepted it since I have a strong conviction that the legislative and the judiciary must at some point of time work together for nation-building. My presence in parliament will be an opportunity to project the views of the judiciary before the legislature and vice versa.”
Gogoi presided as CJI of the Supreme Court for over 13 months and retired in November of last year.
He was among the four judges who came out and conducted a press conference in January 2018 when Dipak Misra was the CJI. They had accused CJI Mishra of selective “assignment of cases to preferred judges” and “sensitive cases were being allotted to junior judges”
Gogoi is the first chief justice to be nominated to the upper house, the seat usually offered to celebrities and artists by the head of the state.
Former Chief Justice Ranganath Mishra, who joined Congress after retiring in 1991, was sent to Rajya Sabha in 1998 and stayed there till 2004. Former Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam also became governor of Kerala appointed by the BJP government.
CJI Gogoi had headed the constitution bench that delivered the landmark Judgment in Ayodhya land dispute. He was also a part of the bench that gave a clean chit to the government in the acquisition of Rafale jets.
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