Modi Sends Former CJI Ranjan Gogoi to Rajya Sabha

ranjan_gogoi_pti_750-1-750x375 (1) NEW DELHI : In a move that has sent shockwaves through legal and political circles, former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has been nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha by President Ram Nath Kovind. A notification to this effect was issued by the Union home ministry on Monday.
This is the first time that a government has nominated a CJI to the upper house and will raise questions about the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary, especially since Gogoi headed benches in key cases that the same government which has nominated him had important political stakes in.
These included the Rafale matter, the dismissal of Central Bureau of Investigation director Alok Verma, the Ayodhya matter, and several other key cases. Dushyant Dave, senior advocate and president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said, “This is totally disgusting, a clear reward in quid pro quo. The semblance of independence of the judiciary is totally destroyed.”
Justice Gogoi had retired in November last year after presiding over the Supreme Court for around 13 months. He was among the four sitting top court judges who had held a first-of-its-kind press conference in January 2018 when Dipak Misra was the Chief Justice. They had alleged selective “assignment of cases to preferred judges” and “sensitive cases were being allotted to junior judges” by Justice Dipak Misra.
Justice Gogoi’s tenure as CJI, which ended on November 17, 2019, was marked by various controversies, including allegations of sexual harassment and the subsequent pursuit of a vendetta against the woman in question, her husband and her two brothers-in-law.

The Modi government triggered a controversy in 2014 itself when it appointed another former CJI, Justice P. Sathasivam, as governor of Kerala. Sathasivam had retired from the Supreme Court in 2013 but had presided over a bench that gave significant relief to the then home minister of Gujarat, Amit Shah, in the custodial killing case of Tulsiram Prajapati. Shah is now Union home minister.

While Sathasivam was the first CJI to be appointed a governor, the first apex court judge to be sent to a Raj Bhavan was Fathima Beevi. She retired from the Supreme Court in 1992 but was made governor of Tamil Nadu in 1997.
Coincidentally, the government in January also appointed the former CJI’s brother, Air Marshall (Retd) Anjan Kumar Gogoi, as a full-time non-official member of the North Eastern Council (NEC). While this is not the first time a former CJI has become a member to Rajya Sabha, Justice Ranaganath Mishra, who retired from the position in 1992, became an MP in the upper house in 1998 on a Congress ticket but at a time when the Congress was not in power.

Even then, of course, his choice was controversial and seen as payback for having covered up the political culpability of senior Congress leaders in the 1984 massacre of the Sikhs as head of the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission. Earlier, he had been rewarded by the then Narasimha Rao government with chairmanship of the National Human Rights Commission.

The sexual harassment allegations first came to light in April 2019, when three media houses published detailed reports on the ordeal the woman and her family had to face. Gogoi, however, denied all the allegations and shocked observers by presiding over an “emergency hearing” on the matter himself.
Justice Gogoi’s tenure was marked by various controversies, including allegations of sexual harassment and the subsequent pursuit of a vendetta against the woman in question, her husband and her two brothers-in-law.
The sexual harassment allegations first came to light in April 2019, when three media houses including Ton the ordeal the woman and her family had to face. Gogoi, however, denied all the allegations and shocked observers by presiding over an “emergency hearing” on the matter himself.
In a reaction to Gogoi’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha, Vrinda Grover, the Delhi-based lawyer who was counsel for the woman who had levelled the harassment charge, said, “I’ve said this before, and I’m saying it again, because there is fresh evidence to substantiate it, credible sexual harassment accusations by a woman do not destroy, or damage, or tarnish the reputation or prospects of powerful men.”

The first time a judge of the Supreme Court was nominated to the Supreme Court soon after retirement was Justice Baharul Islam, who retired from the apex court in January 1983 and was sent to the upper house by Indira Gandhi, who was prime minister at the time, in June 1983. He had earlier been a Rajya Sabha MP from 1962 to 1972, before he was made a judge.
Islam’s nomination was widely seen as a reward for the relief he gave the then Congress chief minister of Bihar, Jagannath Mishra, in the Patna Urban Cooperative Bank scam case. Justice M. Hidayatullah retired as CJI in 1970 and was appointed – apparently on the basis of all-party consensus – vice president of India in 1979, in which capacity he served as chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Justice K.S. Hegde, who resigned from the apex court in 1973 when Indira Gandhi superseded him and appointed another judge as CJI, joined the Janata Party subsequently and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bangalore (South) on the party’s ticket. He served as speaker of the house from 1977 to 1980.
Earlier, M.C. Chagla, who retired as chief justice of the Bombay high court in 1958 was appointed India’s ambassador to the United States and then high commissioner to the United Kingdom by Jawaharlal Nehru. He subsequently entered the government first as minister for education and then external affairs minister.

In 2017, there were reports that another former CJI, Justice T.S. Thakur, had been approached by the Aam Aadmi Party to contest for one of its Rajya Sabha seats but declined the offer. Ironically, the idea of giving post retirement jobs to top judges was strongly opposed by the late BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who denounced such appointments at a meeting of the BJP’s legal cell in 2012. Jaitley had said. “This clamour for post retirement jobs is adversely affecting the impartiality of the judiciary of the country and time has come that it should come to an end…”
Apart from sending Justice Sathasivam to Kerala as governor, however, Jaitley was also party to the appointment of Justice Adarsh Goel, immediately after retirement from the Supreme Court, as head of the National Green Tribunal.
Even then, of course, his choice was controversial and seen as payback for having covered up the political culpability of senior Congress leaders in the 1984 massacre of the Sikhs as head of the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission. Earlier, he had been rewarded by the then Narasimha Rao government with chairmanship of the National Human Rights Commission.

Justice M. Hidayatullah retired as CJI in 1970 and was appointed – apparently on the basis of all-party consensus – vice president of India in 1979, in which capacity he served as chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
Justice K.S. Hegde, who resigned from the apex court in 1973 when Indira Gandhi superseded him and appointed another judge as CJI, joined the Janata Party subsequently and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bangalore (South) on the party’s ticket. He served as speaker of the house from 1977 to 1980.
Earlier, M.C. Chagla, who retired as chief justice of the Bombay high court in 1958 was appointed India’s ambassador to the United States and then high commissioner to the United Kingdom by Jawaharlal Nehru. He subsequently entered the government first as minister for education and then external affairs minister.

In 2017, there were reports that another former CJI, Justice T.S. Thakur, had been approached by the Aam Aadmi Party to contest for one of its Rajya Sabha seats but declined the offer. Apart from sending Justice Sathasivam to Kerala as governor, however, Jaitley was also party to the appointment of Justice Adarsh Goel, immediately after retirement from the Supreme Court, as head of the National Green Tribunal.
Questioning the nomination of former CJI Ranjan Gogoi to the Rajya Sabha, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday, asked if it was ‘Quid pro quo?’, echoing his ‘Supreme, Not Infallible’ comment on the Supreme Court’s judgment on the Ayodhya dispute.

He has also questioned how the independence of the judiciary will remain after the inclusion of a former judge into the legislative body. Trinamool MP Mahua Moitar has mentioned a list of judgment by Gogoi – NRC, Ram Mandir, Article 370 and also mentioned the alleged sexual harassment case against the former CJI which was later dismissed.
Ranjan Gogoi- 46th Chief Justice of India is the son of former Assam chief minister Kesab Chandra Gogoi and completed his law from Delhi University.
(With Agency Inputs ).