Communist Party of India (CPI) national secretary K. Narayana has dubbed as ‘unethical’ the nomination of former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi to Rajya Sabha, saying this could raise questions over independence of Judiciary. He called upon the President of India to recall the appointment to ensure people’s confidence in the judicial system.
Addressing a media conference at the party office here on Friday, Mr. Narayana said the ‘separation of powers’ between Judiciary and Executive were especially significant in this case, since Mr. Gogoi had headed Benches in key cases in which the government had political stakes, including the Rafale, dismissal of CBI director Alok Verma and the Ayodhya dispute.
“Coincidentally, the government in January appointed the former CJI’s brother Air Marshall (Retd.) Anjan Kumar Gogoi as a full-time non-official member of the North Estern Council (NEC)”, Mr. Narayana pointed out, adding that Justice Gogoi’s tenure as CJI, which ended on November 17, 2019, was marked by controversies including allegations of sexual harassment.
‘Not the first’
Indicating that it was not a first of its kind, Dr. Narayana also pointed out that the Modi government had triggered a similar controversy in 2014 by appointing another former CJI Justice P. Sathasivam as Governor of Kerala.
“Justice Sathasivam had presided over a Bench that gave significant relief to the then Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah in the custodial killing case of Tulsiram Prajapati. Shah is now the Union Home Minister,” he observed.
Sensing a ‘quid pro quo’ case, the CPI Secretary also said that Mr. Gogoi had already become the driving force behind updating the controversial National Registry of Citizens(NRC) in Assam.
