On Monday, the Supreme Court expressed its displeasure over a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that targeted former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, requesting an in-house inquiry for his previous rulings related to a service dispute. Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, addressing a Pune-based litigant during the hearing, criticized the act of including a judge as a respondent in a PIL.
“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,” Chief Justice Chandrachud remarked, underscoring the inappropriateness of questioning a former judiciary member through such a petition.
The litigant had initiated the PIL following the dismissal of his earlier plea related to the termination of his services under labour laws, which had been presided over by Justice Gogoi before his retirement. The court highlighted the misuse of PILs for personal grievances rather than matters of public interest.
During the proceedings, tensions escalated when the litigant responded informally to the bench, which also included Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. Chief Justice Chandrachud pointedly criticized the casual responses, stating, “What is this ‘ya-ya’. This is not a coffee shop. I am very allergic to this ‘ya ya’. This cannot be allowed.”
Chief Justice Chandrachud, speaking in Marathi to ensure clarity, instructed the litigant to formally withdraw former CJI Gogoi’s name from the list of parties involved in the case. “Will you delete Justice Gogoi’s name in the appeal against lodgment of the MA (miscellaneous application)? Will you give this in writing…you delete first and then we will see,” he stated.
Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who currently serves as a Rajya Sabha MP, had retired as the CJI on November 17, 2019, after making significant contributions to the judiciary, including a historic verdict in the Ayodhya land dispute case.
