Soliloquy

Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi was inducted into the Upper House of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha on Thursday on the basis of a recommendation made by the President of India. This comes months after Mr Gogoi retired and goes against the common etiquettes and standards of appointing recently retired public servants in higher office.

Mr Gogoi’s acceptance of the role is more shocking than his actual appointment. In January 2018, along with three other judges of the Supreme Court, he had protested about the then-Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra’s alleged personal handling of rosters and appointing specific judges for specific cases (reading between the lines, it is no secret that those specific cases concerned the present regime.) That protest was widely supported across the nation as Mr Gogoi and his peers had suggested that the executive was trying to interfere in the role of the judiciary and that it has increased tremendously in the present National Democratic Alliance regime led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The former Chief Justice, during his tenure, presided over controversial and contentious cases, including the Ayodhya temple matter, the inclusion of the National Population Register in Assam and the Sabarimala Temple review. In all these momentous cases, the verdict had come down along the lines of what the present regime wanted, or less subtly, in the government’s favour. Was Mr Gogoi’s nomination to the Upper House of Parliament to be a reward for these verdicts?

Prashant Bhushan, in his scathing editorial in The Hindu, wrote that even more accusing than the above-given reasons was the slapping of a sexual harassment case upon him by a female employee of Mr Gogoi’s, who was asked to work at his residence in New Delhi. That case was withdrawn eventually, although it came to light that Mr Gogoi had pulled a lot of strings and made use of his widespread influence among his contacts in the Delhi Police. This just goes to show that Mr Gogoi may not be a man of impeccable character. Do we want such an individual to be elected to the Rajya Sabha?

The common public will lose faith in the judiciary of India if it is made to believe that behind any judgement or verdict, there are vicious political powers and influences at play. This is exactly what has happened in this scenario. Mr Ranjan Gogoi’s actions have embarrassed himself and sown seeds of an already-rising distrust among the people of India about the judiciary.