CJI Ranjan Gogoi (TOI photo)

NEW DELHI: A week-long relaxing foreign trip just ahead of retirement would have been an agreeable prospect but CJI Ranjan Gogoi cancelled his multi-country visit to concentrate on writing judgments in important cases - Ayodhya land dispute , entry of women into Sabarimala 's Ayyappa temple, Rafale fighter jet deal and the plea to bring the CJI's office under RTI Act .

CJI Gogoi and Justice SA Bobde were scheduled to attend the golden jubilee function of Egypt's Constitutional Court next week. But being part of the five-judge constitution bench which reserved verdict in the Ayodhya matter, they decided to call off the trip to concentrate on writing the judgment.

Apart from Cairo, CJI Gogoi was scheduled to travel to New York and Toronto as well as to Indonesia and Bali in a multi-nation official tour that was planned much in advance.

The CJI is also heading three other benches which have to deliver verdicts on petitions seeking review of the SC judgment allowing entry of women of all ages into Ayyappa temple, the SC judgment giving a clean chit to the government in the Rafale deal and a petition seeking to bring the CJI's office under the RTI Act.

A five-judge bench headed by CJI Gogoi had on February 6 reserved its verdict on 65 petitions, including 57 seeking review of the SC judgment allowing entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala temple.

Another five-judge constitution bench headed by CJI Gogoi had reserved verdict on April 4 on an appeal filed by the SC registry against a Delhi HC judgment, on a petition by RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, allowing the CJI's office to be brought under the ambit of RTI.

Another high-voltage case is the review petitions challenging the SC's decision last year giving a clean chit to the NDA government on purchase of 36 fully loaded Rafale fighter jets from France under an inter-government agreement.

