Judiciary ramshackled, going to court is useless: Ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi

NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over the increasing pendency of cases that is clogging the Indian judicial system, former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi termed the situation as "ramshackled" and added that even he would not go to the courts.

"Who goes to the court? You go to the court and regret," Gogoi said, adding that it is those who can afford to take chances, such as the big corporates, who approach the courts. Gogoi, who was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in March 2020 after his retirement as the CJI in November 2019, was speaking at an event at Kolkata.

"If you go to the court, you would be washing dirty linen in the court. You will not get a verdict," the former CJI said in reply to a question if he would take legal action against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra over her statement in the Lok Sabha that Gogoi discredited the judiciary by deciding the sexual harassment allegations against himself.

Without naming Moitra, Gogoi said that the "lady politician" did not have her facts right as he did not decide the case against him. Gogoi said he had handed over the file to Justice SA Bobde, who was the next senior judge then, who in turn constituted an inquiry panel as per the in-house procedure.

Gogoi stressed the need for a roadmap to overhaul the judicial system. "You want a 5 trillion dollar economy but you have a ramshackled judiciary," he commented, adding that during the pandemic, 60 lakh cases were added at the trial courts, 3 lakh in high courts and nearly 7,000 in the apex court.

"The road map is to have the right man for the job. You don’t appoint judges as you appoint officers in the government. To be a judge is a full time commitment. It is a passion. There are no working hours," he said, stressing that the training of judges should be robust.