New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday took strong note of former CJI Ranjan Gogoi being made a party to a 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.
