NEW DELHI: Certain decisions taken by the Supreme Court Collegium under him over the elevations and transfers of High Court judges were taken unanimously and were backed with evidence, former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has said.
Giving details about the decisions, his autobiography ‘Justice for the Judge’ has laid bare the facts and circumstances behind several key elevations and transfers, including those of Justices VK Tahilramani, Pradeep Nandrajog and Rajendra Menon.
Revealing reasons for the transfer of Justice Tahilramani from the Madras High Court to Meghalaya in 2019, Justice Gogoi stated, “The decision was first taken in August 2019 after information, adverse in nature, pertaining to the learned Chief Justice, including her irregular and infrequent sittings in court, was received by the members of the Collegium. On cross-checking, some authenticity was found in these complaints.”
Justice Gogoi states that after the resignation of Justice Tahilramani, a complaint was received by the CJI office against her alleging the illegal acquisition of property in Chennai.
On Justice Nandrajog’s episode, Justice Gogoi stated that his name was agreed upon for elevation but the decision was kept in abeyance as the information was widely shared during a social gathering.
In the case of Justice Surya Kant, Justice Gogoi wrote that he was elevated as the Himachal Chief Justice ahead of his senior AK Mittal as Justice J Chelameswar during the Collegium proceedings had said that to his knowledge, Justice Mittal was not fit to be chief justice.