Opposition leaders led by Congress walkout, as Ranjan Gogoi takes oath as Rajya Sabha MP

NEW DELHI: Opposition leaders led by Congress walked out of Rajya Sabha as former Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India Ranjan Gogoi took oath as Rajya Sabha MP.

The Congress members shouted “Shame Shame” and walked out of the hall.

The Communist Party of India, DMK and MDMK also joined in the protest.

Gogoi’s appointment has been criticized by many eminent people from the judiciary.

Madan Lokur, AK Patnaik and Kurian Joseph have spoken out against the appoinement.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal has accused Gogoi of “lapping up a Rajya Sabha seat.”

Many say that his appointment has tainted independence of the judiciary.

When asked by media on why he accepted the Rajya Sabha seat, Gogoi said that he will elaborate on it later.

“I will go to Delhi probably tomorrow. Let me first take oath, then I will speak in detail to the media why I accepted this…,” Ranjan Gogoi told reporters in Assam’s Guwahati on Tuesday.

“I have accepted it since I have a strong conviction that the legislative and the 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 said.

Gogoi was in much news after a woman employee of the Supreme Court of India, who was working as a former junior assistant at the home of CJI Gogoi, accused him of sexual misconduct for which the apex court held an urgent hearing.

Justice Gogoi had denied the allegations of sexual harassment made by the former woman employee saying that there are forces that are trying to destabilize the judiciary. He claimed that the woman who has made the allegations has a criminal background and that there are two FIRs against her.

The three-judge Supreme Court panel who was investigating the allegations of sexual harassment case registered by a former employee of the court against the CJI said that it didn’t find any substance in the allegations of a former top court employee who had accused Gogoi of sexual harassment.

It is important to note that, Gogoi Expedited the Ayodhya Case. The seven-decade-old Ayodhya land dispute was in limbo for nine years since it first reached the Supreme Court. When Justice Ranjan Gogoi took charge as the Chief Justice of India, he prioritised putting an end to one of the longest-running land dispute cases in the country.

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