Ranjan Gogoi responds to Mahua Moitra's attack; here's what he said

KOLKATA: Ranjan Gogoi, the former Chief Justice of India (CJI), slamming Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra for her veiled attack against him on the Lok Sabha floor, said that she did not have her "facts correct."

Referring to Moitra as a "lady member of Parliament" at the ongoing India Today Convention, Gogoi said, "Well, what do you say? She did not even have her facts correct. You are making an allegation -- have the courage to name the person."

Moitra, taking a dig at Gogoi for allegedly presiding over his own sexual harassment trial, had said, “The sacred cow that was the judiciary is no longer sacred. It stopped being sacred the day a sitting chief justice of this country was accused of sexual harassment, presided over his own trial, cleared himself and then proceeded to accept a nomination to the Upper House within three months of retirement, complete with Z-plus security cover.”

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Asked about the simmering controversies after a slew of decisions seen as 'pro-government', Gogoi said that a judge or a former judge does not get "cowed down" by attacks.

"If a judge is made conscious that he or she better do what someone wants in the media -- India Today, NDTV24X7, Indian Express -- the web portals. They are telling you -- conduct yourself the way we want or else we will attack you. Can a judge get cowed down to that? Unfortunately, there are many who succumb to this pressure," Gogoi, who has been elected to the Rajya Sabha by the BJP-led government, said.

On being nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the Narendra Modi government within a year of his retirement as the Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi said, "I am least concerned about which party appointed me. I don't have a constituency, the entire country is my constituency."