Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi today took oath as Rajya Sabha MP while there were slogans being raised by the opposition parties and walkout.
The former CJI was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by President Ram Nath Kovind while exercising the powers granted to him by the Constitution of India to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Senior Advocate K. T. S. Tulsi. Peers and legal luminaries were highly critical of Gogoi for accepting the nomination.
Justice Gogoi had retired in November last year after presiding over the Supreme Court for around 13 months. As a judge, Ranjan Gogoi had headed the constitution bench that had delivered a landmark judgment in the temple-mosque dispute in Ayodhya. The court had handed the disputed 2.77-acre land for a temple and granted 5 acres for a mosque at an alternative location in Ayodhya.
He was also part of the bench that gave a clean chit to the government in the case regarding the acquisition of the Rafale jets, saying there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement of 36 fighter jets.
Gogoi had earlier said, “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”