Ayodhya, wine & a memoir

New Delhi: The recently launched memoirs of Justice Ranjan Gogoi, the former Chief Justice of India, includes a photograph of him with the other judges of the Ayodhya Bench at a dinner in a luxury hotel in Delhi, captioned ‘Celebrating the Landmark Ayodhya Verdict’.

In his book, Chief Justice Gogoi says: “In the evening (of delivering the verdict), I took the judges for dinner to Taj Mansingh Hotel. We ate Chinese food and shared a bottle of wine, the best available there. I picked the tab, being the eldest.”

Asked if it was appropriate to be celebrating the verdict in a contentious issue as the Ayodhya dispute in an interview with a TV channel, Justice Gogoi denied that the dinner was a celebration. “Not celebrate. Not celebrate. When you go for dinner with friends, at times, don’t you feel like tasting outside food?” he asked. —(Agencies)