Huge buzz was created when news broke out that former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, on Monday by President Ram Nath Kovind. Nominating his name President Kovind said that his presence in parliament will "be an opportunity to project the views of the judiciary before the legislative and vice versa".
On being asked about the nomination, former Chief Justice said, "I will go to Delhi probably tomorrow. Let me first take oath, then I will speak in detail to the media why I accepted this."
"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," he said.
Ranjan Gogoi had retired in November last year after presiding over the Supreme Court for around 13 months. Gogoi 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.
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No Chief Justice has been nominated before to the Upper House, usually dominated by celebrities and artists, by the head of the state. Before Gogoi, former Chief Justice Ranganath Mishra had joined the Congress and became a Member of Parliament. Justice Mishra, who retired in 1991, was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1998 and stayed there till 2004.