Former CJI Ranjan Gogoi takes oath as Rajya Sabha member

The former chief justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, has taken oath as Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament today, three days after was nominated for the post by President Ram Nath Kovind. According to a home ministry notification, the President, under "sub-clause (a) of clause (1) of Article 80 of the Constitution of India, read with clause (3) of that article", nominated Gogoi for the Upper House. He'll fill the vacancy created after jurist KTS Tulsi retired from the Rajya Sabha.

To oppose Gogoi's nomination, the members of opposition parties walked out from the House. Gogoi (65) retired as Chief Justice of India in November last year after a tenure of a little over 13 months. He will be the first former Chief Justice of India to be nominated to Rajya Sabha.

Despite criticism over accepting the offer, Gogoi had earlier said it'll be an "opportunity to project the views of the judiciary before the legislative and vice versa."

In Guwahati, he said he accepted it since he was confident that the legislature and the judiciary must at some point in time work together for nation-building.

Critics have termed his nomination for the Upper House as "institutional erosion". However, he's not the first judge to be offered the Rajya Sabha membership.

Notably, there's no such law that bars judges from being nominated. However, what has surprised many is that he's the first Supreme Court Judge to be appointed to the House in just a few months after retirement.

Gogoi headed the SC bench that gave the controversial Ayodhya verdict. He also presided over benches that gave verdicts on the Rafale deal. Both these verdicts had gone in the ruling party BJP's favour.