Former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who has been nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha, on Tuesday told media persons that he will speak on why he accepted the nomination after taking the oath.

“I will go to Delhi probably tomorrow. Let me first take oath, then I will speak in detail to the media why I accepted this…,” Ranjan Gogoi was quoted as saying by NDTV in Assam’s Guwahati.

The Home Ministry on Monday issued a notification announcing that President Ram Nath Kovind is nominating Ranjan Gogoi to fill the vacancy originating due to retirement of one of the nominated members.

“President is pleased to nominate Shri Ranjan Gogoi to Council of States to fill the vacancy caused due to the retirement of one of the nominated members,” the official government notification read.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by the sub-clause (a) of clause (1) of Article 80 of the Constitution of India, read with clause (3) of the article, the President is pleased to nominate Shri Ranjan Gogoi to the Council of States to fill the vacancy caused due to the retirement of one of the nominated member”, the notification further read.

The vacancy was created due to the retirement of KTS Tulsi. Gogoi (65) retired as CJI in November last year after a tenure of a little over 13 months.

The maximum strength of Rajya Sabha is 250 members, out of which 12 are nominated by the President of India.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi was sworn in as the 46th Chief Justice of India in October 2018. He was appointed for a 13-month stint, and he took over from Justice Dipak Mishra.

Gogoi headed the five-judge bench which delivered a landmark judgement in 70-year-old Ayodhya title dispute in November 2019. The apex court had ordered the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site by setting up a trust while ordering five acres be given to Muslims in Ayodhya to construct a mosque.

A bench headed by Gogoi also ruled that Chief Justice Office falls under RTI but placed some riders. And, in another judgement, a bench headed by him in a majority judgement of 3:2 referred the Sabarimala temple judgement of 2018 to a larger bench. Justice Gogoi also pursued the Assam NRC and tasked the authorities concerned to publish the final list before August 31, 2019.

In another politically sensitive judgment, a three-judge bench, headed by Gogoi, and comprising Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph, on 14 November dismissed a review petition challenging the Rafale deal case. A bench headed by Gogoi also censured Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for wrongfully attributing the “Chowkidar chor hai” remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the top court.

On his last working day, Gogoi had said the judicial system is facing new challenges, which emerge from within and outside of court complexes and judicial processes.

Ranjan Gogoi will be the first former Chief Justice of India to be nominated to Rajya Sabha. Former Chief Justice Ranganath Misra was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1998, but he was elected on a Congress party ticket.

Former Chief Justice P Sathasivam, who held the office for nine months from 2013 to 2014, after retirement was appointed the Governor of Kerala from September 2014 to September 2019.