Published 23:28 IST, March 16th 2020
Abhishek Singhvi slams BJP for ex-CJI's RS nomination; asks PM to heed Arun Jaitley
Slamming the BJP on the nomination of former CJI Ranjan Gogoi to Rajya Sabha, Abhishek Singhvi contrasted freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose to BJP's ideology
Slamming the BJP on the nomination of former CJI Ranjan Gogoi to Rajya Sabha, senior SC advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, on Monday contrasted freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose to BJP's ideology. Quoting Bose's 'Give me blood, I will give you freedom', he said BJP had tweaked it to 'Give us a judgment favourable to our ideology, we give you Rajya Sabha seat'. He added that it was not about Gogoi, but about the 'concept of independence of the judiciary'.
Singhvi: 'It's about independence of judiciary'
Quoting late former Union Minister Arun Jaitley, he asked PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to listen to Jaitley's advice against post-retirement largesse to judges. Lamenting the defeat of faith, trust, perception in courts, he said that NDA had previously nominated Former Chief Justice P. Sathasivam as Governor of Kerala immediately after his retirement in 2014. Pointing out that previous CJIs Ranganath Misra and Mohammad Hidayatullah became Rajya Sabha members six and nine years respectively, he said that even the cooling-off period for bureaucrats to become Rajya Sabha members was at least 1-2 years.
President nominates Ranjan Gogoi to Rajya Sabha
President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday has nominated former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to the Rajya Sabha, according to a notification issued by the Centre. Under clause (1) of Article 80 of the Constitution, the President has nominated the former CJI to fill the vacancy in the Upper house due to the retirement of one of the nominated member. Gogoi had retired from the Supreme Court on November 17 after pronouncing the historic Ayodhya verdict. While 51 seats in Rajya Sabha are falling vacant in April, five more in June, one in July and 11 in November this year.
About Ranjan Gogoi
Ranjan Gogoi- 46th Chief Justice of India is the son of former Assam chief minister Kesab Chandra Gogoi and completed his law from Delhi University. At first he enrolled in Gauhati High Court in 1978 practising constitutional, taxation and company matters. He was then transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court - where he rose to the post of Chief Justice. Later he was elevated as a judge in the Supreme Court on 23 April 2012 and subsequently succeeded then-CJI Dipak Misra on 3 October 2018. He was succeeded by Justice S A Bobde.
Updated 23:28 IST, March 16th 2020