Bring out the ammo: Ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi is a loaded gun that’s out to end the anti-establishment cabal once and for all

Retired Supreme Court Judge Ranjan Gogoi, who was described by the left-liberal media as the “man who delivered the Ayodhya verdict” upon his nomination as a Rajya Sabha member by the President of India under Article 80 of the Constitution, has been facing a manufactured outrage ever since his nomination to the Upper House of the Parliament.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, his brother Judges from the Supreme Court- Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Madan Lokur, retired Delhi High Court Judge A P Shah and Justice (retd.) Markandey Katju have insinuated that the retired Chief Justice of India has undermined the independence of Judiciary by accepting the Rajya Sabha nomination.

Now, the sitting Rajya Sabha MP, retired Justice Gogoi has come out with hard-hitting remarks against everyone who has been coming down heavily on him for accepting the Rajya Sabha nomination. In an interview to Times Now, he described Justice Katju as “irrelevant” and said that he should be ignored. He also opined that Justices Kurian Joseph and Madan Lokur have their own problems- “failed ambitions”.

He made some particularly serious allegations against Justice A P Shah, and said that it was due to such allegations- one deal with a film star and two property transactions during his tenure as the Madras High Court Chief Justice, which the newly appointed Rajya Sabha Member confidently says are a matter of record as it came up before the Supreme Court and can be extracted easily under an RTI. He described Justice Shah, seemingly sarcastically, as “the champion of Independence of Judiciary”, and reiterated that he was not making wild allegations, rather what he is saying is a matter of record due to which he was not recommended for elevation to the Supreme Court.

In another interview, he had recently said that he has controversial information against Justice A P Shah, which led him to the conclusion that he shouldn’t even react to comments being made by Justice Shah against him.

https://twitter.com/SriramMadras/status/1240879006024716288

As for Kapil Sibal, who also had also come out with rather distasteful remarks against the former Chief Justice of India, the newly appointed Rajya Sabha member had some shocking revelations to make. He said, “Kapil Sibal came to me for Dipak Mishra’s impeachment. I did not let him enter my house.”

In fact, the ex-Chief Justice of India has been particularly unforgiving towards those making false allegations against him. Recently, he also exposed the anti-establishment lobby, saying, “I was the darling of the lobby when I went for the press conference in January 2018. But they want judges to decide cases in a certain manner and only then they will certify them as ‘independent judges’. I never entertained any feeling that there is some expectation outside the court. I did and I do what I feel is correct, otherwise, I am not being true as a judge.”

He has not only been coming down heavily upon his detractors, but has sufficiently explained that why he accepted the Rajya Sabha nomination and how it is not even remotely a threat to the independence of judiciary dispelling all apprehensions raised about the idea of an imaginary “cooling period”.

In an interview with India Today, he said, “My answer is why not. I accepted the nomination for the same reason I accept the judgeship at the age of 45 when I had a lucrative practice. There is a practice in the bar that when a judgeship is offered you don’t refuse. When the President makes an offer, you don’t refuse,” responding to why he accepted the nomination.

On the question of cooling period, he said, “So far as the cooling period is concerned, tell me under what law cooling period can be visualised? When you apply a law, apply it across the board, don’t apply it on a case to case basis. How do you then man the tribunals, which are headed by retired Supreme Court judges?”

Coming down heavily on the anti-establishment lobby and a select group of individuals like Kapil Sibal who assume upon the onerous task of maintaining the “independence of judiciary”, Ranjan Gogoi has been making some unprecedented revelations and exposing the cabal like never before. In all certainty, it seems that some judicial reforms are on the cards now.

At the outset, Gogoi had made it clear that he will look to build greater cohesion between the Parliament and the Judiciary. At this rate, he might as well speak up about the issues involved with the collegium system in appointment of Judges to the Constitutional Courts of the country. The way he is bringing up issues, shows that he has nothing to hide as such and there couldn’t have been a better judicial veteran to be nominated to the Council of States. At a time when the Modi government is trying to constitute the All Indian Judicial Services in order to streamline the recruitment and appointment of Judges- the presence of an experienced and fearless retired Chief Justice of India in the Rajya Sabha can come in handy.