“Didn’t feel very comfortable going there,” Justice Ranjan Gogoi said while attending parliament.
New Delhi:
The recently released memoir of Judge Ranjan Gogoi, former Chief Justice of India, includes a photo of him with other judges by Ayodhya Bench at a dinner in a luxury hotel in Delhi, captioned ‘Celebrating Ayodhya Landmark Judgment’.
In his book, Chief Justice Gogoi said: “In the evening (at sentencing), I took the judges to dinner to the Taj Mansingh hotel. We ate Chinese food and shared a bottle of wine, kind of the tastiest available there. I chose the tab, is the eldest.”
Asked if it was appropriate to celebrate the ruling in such a controversial matter as the Ayodhya dispute in an interview with NDTV, Justice Gogoi denied that the dinner was a celebration. “Don’t celebrate. Don’t celebrate. When you go out to dinner with friends, sometimes you don’t feel like tasting outside food?” he asks.
When asked if it would be considered insensitive, especially to those who may have lost their judgment, he brushed it aside.
“Each of these judges worked and worked and worked for four months (on Ayodhya’s ruling.) My judges and all of us worked so hard, we think we’ll rest. Did we do something wrong?” he told NDTV.
The interview, based on Justice Gogoi’s autobiography, titled “Justice for the Judge,” also addressed the controversy over his decision to preside over a hearing that was subpoenaed over allegations of sexual harassment by a Court-level women staff. .
“In my book, there is a sentence that, in retrospect, perhaps my participation on the bench was not correct,” he said.
He said the decision was motivated by anxiety about his reputation.
“CJI’s (Chief Judge of India) didn’t fall from the sky. 40 years of reputation built after hard work is ruined, you’re forced to take a call. Part of it has been axed. malfunction.”
At the end of the hearing, Bench passed an order requiring the media to carefully cover the “myth and scandalous allegations”, as if it had cleared up the charges against Justice Gogoi in the first place. However, Justice Gogoi, who was part of that Bench, said it was “an ineffective command”.
“This order is a kind of advice to the media to limit coverage of the incident… There is no question as to whether any effective order has been passed that vindicates me, like people later called it… What Bench was trying to say was that the allegations of extravagance and scandal should be reported with caution and caution. That’s all,” he said.
During the controversial Rajya Sabha admission, the judge wrote in his autobiography that he “did not think twice before accepting” and that he did not imagine that charges would be brought that the chair “was a support for the rulings made in the Rafale and Ram Janmabhoomi case.” He went on to say that he accepted the offer because it would give him the opportunity to highlight issues of the private sector. France and his home state of Assam.
Rajya Sabha records show he has less than 10% attendance in parliament.
“Personally, I don’t feel very comfortable going there. And the pandemic is still going on and even today I don’t feel comfortable going to Rajya Sabha… Despite the social distancing rules already in place… are enforced, but they are not followed,” he said, when asked about his poor school performance.
“It’s important that I go to Rajya Sabha, when I feel like it. When I think there’s an important matter that I should talk about… I’m a nominated member. I’m not swayed by any blows. So whenever the bell rings, let the party members come, it doesn’t bind me. I go there, by my choice and I go out by my choice. is an independent member of the house,” he added.
Asked about allegations that the parliamentary seat was a “reward” for his rulings in cases like the Rafale case and the Ayodhya case, he said the rulings were not just his and were passed by a Bench .
Despite his controversial tenure, the judge said he has a clear conscience. “I can get a second term in Rajya Sabha,” he said.
.
