JOIN USPresident Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday appointed Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the next Chief Justice of India. He will assume the office of Chief Justice on 3rd October 2018 after the retirement of the current Chief Justice, Justice Dipak Misra.
Known as a soft-spoken but tough, Justice Gogoi was among the four senior-most Supreme Court judges who had in January 2018 held a rare press conference and criticized Chief Justice Misra accusing him of misusing his authority in allotment of cases as the Supreme Court's Master of the Roster.
They had raised objections over "arbitrary" allocation of certain cases with far-reaching consequences to particular benches. Justice Ranjan Gogoi had then admitted that the issue also involved assigning special judge B H Loya's death case.
The other three judges, who had held the press conference with Justice Gogoi were Justices J Chelameswar, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph.
After the press conference, there was intense speculation for months over Justice Gogoi’s appointment as the next CJI even as Justice Gogoi was next in seniority to Justice Misra, to succeed him. Justice Misra, however, went by the convention and recommended his name for the next CJI, scorching all speculation last week.
Justice Gogoi’s appointment on Thursday comes nearly a week after his predecessor Justice Misra wrote to the government recommending his name as his successor.
The tenure of Justice Gogoi, who is the 46th Chie Justice will last till November 2019, a law ministry notification said.
Born on 18th November 1954, Justice Gogoi enrolled as an advocate in 1978. He practised in the Gauhati High Court on constitutional, taxation and company matters before he was appointed as a Permanent Judge of the Gauhati High Court on 28th February 2001.
He was transferred to the Punjab & Haryana High Court on 9 September 2010. Later he was appointed as Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court on 12 February 2011.
He was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on 23 April 2012.