Gogoi: Will speak after taking oath

Guwahati, March 17: Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Tuesday defended his decision to accept nomination to the Rajya Sabha, saying he wants the legislature and judiciary to work together for nation-building.

Gogoi, however, said he will speak in detail about the issue, over which he and the Modi government have come under attack, after taking oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha.

“I have accepted the offer of nomination to the Rajya Sabha because of strong conviction that the legislature and 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 told an Assamese news channel.

Opposition parties, including the Congress, have questioned the nomination of Gogoi to the RS barely months after he retired in November last year.

Meanwhile, former Supreme Court judge Justice Kurian Joseph has reacted strongly to the nomination of former-CJI Ranjan Gogoi as member of the Rajya Sabha saying that he has “compromised the noble principles” of the independence and impartiality

of judiciary. “According to me, the acceptance of nomination as member of Rajya Sabha by a former CJI, has certainly shaken the confidence of common man on the independence of judiciary, which is also one of the basic structures of the Constitution,” he said.