CJI
EX-CJI Ranjan Gogoi. Image Credit - Livemint

New Delhi: Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, who was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha in March 2020, has just 29 per cent attendance in the House during the last three years.

According to The Print, ex-CJI Gogoi has notched up an average parliamentary attendance of just 29 per cent over three years, in comparison to the 79 per cent average attendance of MPs.

The former CJI has also not asked a single question in the Upper House,  in three years and eight Rajya Sabha sessions since his nomination.

He has also not participated in any discussion, nor put up any private member’s bill, according to Parliament records, the news website reported.

On his appointment to the Upper House, Gogoi had said that he had accepted the offer of nomination to the Rajya Sabha because of a strong conviction that the legislature and judiciary must, at some point in 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 had told a news channel.

In December 2021, 68-year-old Gogoi had again defended his decision to take up the posting in his memoir Justice for the Judge, explaining that he had accepted the nomination without hesitation since he wanted to raise issues pertaining to the judiciary and the north-east region, to which he belongs.

During Justice Gogoi’s 13-month tenure as CJI, the Supreme Court delivered landmark judgements in the Ayodhya case.