• Source:JND
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Former Madhya Pradesh High Court judge Justice Rohit Arya on Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), almost three months after retiring from his long judicial career. Justice Arya adopted the membership of the saffron party in the presence of Raghavendra Sharma, who is the chief of the Madhya Pradesh BJP unit. Notably, many of Justice Arya’s judgments grabbed headlines, including the one when he denied bail to comedians Munawar Faruqui and Nalin Yadav in 2021.

Earlier, Calcutta High Court judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay joined the BJP in the backdrop of recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. Justice Gangopadhyay resigned as a judge on March 5 and joined the saffron party to contest the Parliamentary election. He contested from Tamluk Lok Sabha seat and is now an MP in the lower house.

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These recent transitions remind us of the time when BJP stalwart and former Union Minister Arun Jaitley expressed concern about how the yearning for post-retirement jobs among judges was affecting the impartiality of the judiciary.

Jaitley, who was himself an acclaimed advocate, had said that ‘the desire of a post-retirement job influences the pre-retirement judgment’, citing it as a threat to the judiciary. He made this statement in the Parliament, which received a thumping response from his fellow MPs.

Jaitley’s statement was also supported by the then party chief Nitin Gadkari, who advocated a cooling-off period of two years for judges after retirement.

He sought a two-year gap for the judges (before new appointment) after their retirement to prevent any direct or indirect influence of the government on them.

Besides, Arun Jaitley advocated for the establishment of a National Judicial Commission, comprising representatives from the judiciary, government, and society, to oversee appointments and address complaints against judges.

If we talk of Justice Gangopadhyay, he often made headlines for his resentment against the Mamata-led TMC government. He also allegedly rebuked the Bengal government during a TV interview. A Bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha, while dealing with cases pertaining to Justice Gangopadhyay, said judges should not give TV interviews on pending cases.

When Justice Gangopadhyay resigned, CM Mamata Banerjee said the former’s judgments will always remain questionable.

Other Judges who entered politics after their judicial stint:

- Former CJI Ranjan Gogoi is currently Rajya Sabha MP, nominated by President RN Kovind

- Ranganath Misra became a Rajya Sabha member on a Congress ticket after serving as CJI

- Mohammad Hidayatullah became Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman after his tenure as CJI

- P. Sathasivam was appointed as the governor of Kerala in 2014, about four months after retiring as CJI

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Apart from the above, several commissions, regulatory authorities and committees have retired judges as chairpersons and members. While it is justified for bodies like the Law Commission of India, Press Council of India and human rights commissions etc to have judges at the helm, in certain cases it is just done to accommodate them or reward them, as Jaitley pointed out in the Rajya Sabha.