Ex-Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi slams the lobby; smashes fake news

Former Chief Justice of India, Justice Ranjan Gogoi today delivered the Keynote Address on "Ensuring an Independent Judiciary under our Constitution: Confronting the Contemporary Challenges" in a Webinar hosted by the Confederation for Alumni for National Law Universities. He came down heavily on the 'activist judges' who were raising questions on judiciary immediately after their retirement but kept quiet while in office.

Justice Gogoi said, "Who are these activist judges working with? Who is giving platforms to them for saying all this? There are no questions asked. How and why do arbitration works flow to only some judges and not to others? Again, no questions asked," said the former Chief Justice of India.

He began with speaking on the Collegium system for appointment of judges in the higher judiciary. "My experience with the Collegium system is that it is a sure way of keeping the Executive out of the appointment process" he said. "But this is not to say that the Executive does not have a role to play. The Executive has an equal role, but the judicial voice is the ultimate voice" said Justice Gogoi.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who is credited with pronouncing the landmark judgment in the Ayodhya dispute case after a marathon 40-day hearing despite delaying tactics taken up by the lobby, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court laid the law of the land unanimously and conclusively.

On the landmark judgement, he said, "During the tenure of a particular Supreme Court judge, there were 32 cases which were decided by his bench in which the author was not disclosed. No questions were raised then. I, myself, have authored 13 judgments where my name is not shown. This is a jurisprudentially and logically acceptable practice" Justice Gogoi said. He went on to say that the persons raising questions were critics who wanted the five judges to write down separate judgments so that the Ayodhya verdict does not come out before my retirement.