The nomination of Ranjan Gogoi, the former Chief Justice of India to the Rajya Sabha which was officially announced last Monday had sparked off an unprecedented furore and is still continuing unabated. So much so, on Thursday when he took oath, members of the opposition hurled choicest slogans of disapproval and even staged a walk out of the house, the first-of-its-kind instance during an oath-taking by a member. By now, reasons for this controversy have been widely deliberated, from which, it can be reasonably inferred that its genesis, to a large extent, perhaps lies in a word used quite frequently nowadays-‘chronology’.
It’s a matter of record that there are precedents when SC judges do had accepted posts in various important public offices including the RS after their retirements. But, a good part of the nation’s legal, political and social fraternity in unison is pointing out that the current case stands out from the crowd since the appointment has come just within months of the CJI’s retirement, an instance which has no parallel as of now. The notable comparative examples doing the round are that of former CJs Ranganath Mishra and M. Hidayatullah, where the entire gamut of arguments and counter-arguments hover around the fact that both accepted their appointments after long gaps, ranging from seven to nine years. And the other cause of this debate, which is more discussed and presumably the bone of contention is Justice Gogoi’s ruling in several cases while heading the respective benches that strikingly went in favour of the ruling dispensation. Falling in the list will be-awarding the perennially disputed Ayodhya site to the Hindus for construction of Ram temple, giving clean chit to the current central government in the Rafale deal and his public defence of the Assam NRC.    
In a country which has a long history of failure of the executive, it’s the judiciary that has come to the people’s rescue and thus has earned reverence, built painstakingly over decades since independence and the respect still continues no doubt. It’s a corollary too that has strengthened over times that for any functional democracy to flourish and sustain, more so in India’s context which is world’s largest, independence of judiciary from the executive is a must precondition. But, it’s the opinion of the legal luminaries as well as the political class now that this episode will only invite the ‘clouds of doubt’ over the propriety of the judiciary as a whole.
Echoing the common man’s observation, it must be said that time has come for the nation to seriously engage itself in finding the just mechanism that would ensure an ideal milieu where there will be little or no room for raising questions about the judiciary.   

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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