He will be the first CJI to come from Assam and north-eastern states. If the recommendation is cleared by the Central government, Justice Gogoi will be administered the oath of office by President Ram Nath Kovind on October 3.
New Delhi: Justice Ranjan Gogoi will become the 46th Chief Justice of India and will succeed Chief Justice Dipak Misra on October 3. CJI Misra is retiring on October 2. He will be the first CJI to come from Assam and north-eastern states.
Convention demands the recommendation letter from the incumbent be sent at least a month before his date of retirement. Convention also requires the senior most judge of the Supreme Court be appointed Chief Justice of India. The recommendation letter of the incumbent is the first step in the process of appointment of the next Chief Justice of India.
CJI Misra has endorsed Justice Gogoi as he is the most senior judge in the Supreme Court after Misra. CJI Misra followed the tradition and convention.
Justice Gogoi is one of the four Supreme Court judges who had held the unprecedented press conference in January this year, protesting nepotism in the court and raising concerns about the administration in the apex court, saying it was “not in order”.
“Justice Gogoi is from Assam, and he headed the special bench that is monitoring the National Register of Citizens to identify citizens in the state. Born in 1954, Justice Gogoi joined the Bar in 1978. He was subsequently appointed as Permanent Judge of Gauhati High Court on February 28, 2001. Later transferred to the Punjab & Haryana High Court in September 2010, he went on to become the Chief Justice of the same high court in February 2011. He was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court in April 2012,” reported The Indian Express.
“If the recommendation is cleared by the Central government, Justice Gogoi will be administered the oath of office by President Ram Nath Kovind on October 3,” the report said.
Former Attorney General of India Soli Sorabjee was approving of the decision to nominate Justice Gogoi. “He is the senior most judge after Justice Dipak Misra. So, he should take charge. I don’t see any problem in that. There is nothing that will disqualify him from being the next Chief Justice. He is a very far-sighted judge. He keeps an open mind. He is a very fair judge. He is not at all bothered about what the government would feel. He is independent and that’s what we want – independent, intelligent and courageous. That’s what we want the Chief Justice of India to be and that’s what Ranjan Gogoi is,” Sorabjee told ANI.
Senior advocate KTS Tulsi also called it “great news.” “Firstly, it strengthens the judiciary. The convention is being followed. If it had not happened, it would have been a serious problem for not only the judiciary, but the state. I am glad that it is being done. Also, Justice Gogoi is one of the most outstanding judges that you could come across. He is an intuitive judge. He makes up his mind in a matter of seconds. But, he is always open to changing his view if you are able to convince him. He is a brilliant judge in all fields,” Tulsi told ANI.
At the third Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture on ‘Vision of Justice’ in July, he lamented at the fact that the SC verdicts on protecting speech and expression delivered for the rights of the Press did not translate into reality. Gogoi had said that independent journalists and noisy judges are needed in a democracy.
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