Is Justice Gogoi the first former CJI to make it to the Rajya Sabha?

New Delhi, Mar 17: A controversy has erupted after former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi was nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

The Opposition has asked if this is quid pro quo. Justice Gogoi presided over important matters such as Rafale and the Ayodhya case. However Justice Gogoi is not the first former CJI to make it to the Rajya Sabha.

Before him, former Chief Justice of India, Ranganath Misra was also a Rajya Sabha member. However he was elected on a Congress party ticket. Justice Misra was the 21st Chief Justice of India serving from September 25, 1990 and November 24, 1991. He was also the first chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of India.

Justice Misra was the sole members of the Justice Ranganath Misra Commission of Inquiry. This commission headed the investigation into the 1984 anti Sikh riots. While indicting 19 workers of the Congress party who were charged by the Peoples' Union for Civil Liberties of having abetted the riots, he however gave a clean chit the Congress party. Justice Misra served as a Rajya Sabha member from the Congress party between 1998 and 2004.

Incidentally Justice Misra became the second former Supreme Court judge to make it to the Rajya Sabha. The first was Justice Baharul Islam. He was elected as Rajya Sabha member on a Congress ticket and in 1972, he resigned to become a judge in Gauhati High Court. After he retired as Chief Justice of the High Court, he was recalled and made a judge of the Supreme Court, a move that was considered to be unprecedented. He resigned from the Supreme Court and then was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha on a Congress party ticket.