Top court miffed over litigation seeking probe against former chief justice Ranjan Gogoi

THE SUPREME COURT on Monday took strong note of former CJI Ranjan Gogoi being made a party to a public interest litigation (PIL) and seeking of an in-house inquiry against him for dismissing a plea earlier related to a service dispute.

"How can you file a PIL with a judge as a respondent? There has to be some dignity. You cannot just say I want an in-house inquiry against a judge. Justice Ranjan Gogoi was a former judge of the Supreme Court," a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud told a Pune-based litigant.

"He retired as the chief justice of India. You cannot say I want an in-house inquiry against a judge because you did not succeed before the bench. Sorry, we cannot tolerate this", the bench said.

The litigant filed a PIL after his plea relating to his termination of services under labour laws was earlier dismissed by a bench headed by Justice Gogoi, since retired.

At the outset, the CJI got miffed when the litigant said ‘ya-ya’ instead of ‘yes’ in response to some queries from the bench, which also comprised Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

"What is this 'ya-ya'. This is not the coffee shop. I am very allergic to this ‘ya ya’. This cannot be allowed," the CJI said.

The litigant said this was the case of "illegal termination".

"How can you file a PIL in a service matter after dismissal of the petition and the review plea, You should have filed a curative petition," the CJI said.

The CJI also spoke in Marathi in his bid to make the litigant understand legal issues and the procedural objections and asked him to make a statement before the apex court registry that he will delete the name of the former CJI from the list of parties.

"Will you delete Justice Gogoi's name in the appeal against lodgement of the MA (miscellaneous application)? Will you give this in writing...you delete first and then we will see," the CJI said.

Justice Gogoi, who is presently a Rajya Sabha MP, was the first person from the northeast to reach the top post in judiciary and was credited for bringing the curtains down on the decades old politically and religiously sensitive Ayodhya land dispute case.

He retired as the CJI on November 17, 2019. (PTI)