Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Tuesday justified his nomination to the Rajya Sabha but declined to elaborate the reasons that made him weigh and accept the offer.
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President Ram Nath Kovind had on Monday named Mr. Gogoi for one of the 12 Rajya Sabha seats to which members are nominated.
“I will probably go to Delhi tomorrow [Wednesday]. I will address the media after returning from the swearing-in to say why I accepted [the offer] humbly and why I am going to the Rajya Sabha,” he told a small group of newspersons at his residence here.
The former CJI said he would try to present the views of the judiciary in the Upper House.
Mr. Gogoi is the second person from Assam after educationist Mrinal Miri to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha. Two others from the northeast — academician B.B. Dutta from Meghalaya and boxer M.C. Mary Kom from Manipur — have also been nominated.
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The former CJI, who supervised the exercise to update the National Register of Citizens in Assam and delivered the judgment in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute , had earlier in the day told a local media group that the need for the legislature and judiciary to “meet at one point of time” made him accept the RS nomination.
