Justice Gogoi was appointed the Chief Justice of India by President Ram Nath Kovind last month on the recommendation of incumbent CJI Dipak Misra who retired on October 1.
Justice Ranjan Gogoi was sworn in as the Chief Justice of India on Wednesday at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Justice Gogoi was appointed the Chief Justice of India by President Ram Nath Kovind last month on the recommendation of incumbent CJI Dipak Misra who retired from his post on October 1.
President Kovind administered the oath to the 63-year-old Justice Gogoi at a brief ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan's Darbar Hall. Justice Gogoi will have a tenure of a little over 13 months and would retire on November 17, 2019. Several leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his predecessor Manmohan Singh, former premier HD Deve Gowda and Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge were present at the ceremony.
He succeeds Justice Dipak Misra who retired Tuesday on attaining the age of 65 years. Misra's tumultuous 13-month tenure drew to a close on Monday. Misra used his last public address as the top judge to stress the independence of the judiciary and asserting there is "collegiality" amongst the judges of the Supreme Court. At the farewell ceremony, Justice Gogoi praised the outgoing CJI for an "illustrious career".
Justice Misra had on September 4 sent a letter to the Government of India, recommending Justice Gogoi's name for the next CJI.
Earlier, rumours about the government introducing a bill to increase the retirement age of judges were doing the rounds in media, only to be later put to rest by Law Ministry denying such speculations.
Here is all you need to know about the 46th Chief Justice of India:
1. Justice Gogoi sworn in as 46th CJI
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President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath to the 63-year-old Justice Gogoi at a brief ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan's Darbar Hall. Justice Gogoi will have a tenure of a little over 13 months and would retire on November 17, 2019.
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2. First CJI from northeast
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Justice Gogoi is the first person from the northeast region of India to reach the top judicial post in the country. He is the son of former Assam Chief Minister Keshab Chandra Gogoi.
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3. From Dibrugarh in Assam to CJI's post
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Born on November 18, 1954, Gogoi did his schooling in Don Bosco School Dibrugarh before studying history in Delhi University's St Stephen's College. He was enrolled as an advocate in 1978 and practised in the Gauhati High Court on constitutional, taxation and company matters.
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4. Appointed as permanent judge of Gauhati HC in 2001
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He was appointed as a permanent judge of the Gauhati High Court on February 28, 2001. On September 9, 2010, he was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He was appointed as Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court on February 12, 2011 and then a judge of the Supreme Court on April 23, 2012.
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5. 'Rebel' judge
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Justice Ranjan Gogoi was one of the four senior Supreme Court judges -- Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- who virtually revolted against CJI Misra over "selective" case allocation and certain judicial orders in January this year. The four senior Supreme Court judges had called a press conference in New Delhi in the second week of January and said the situation in the top court was "not in order" and that many "less than desirable" things had taken place. At the unprecedented press conference, Justice Gogoi had hinted that the allocation of a case seeking an investigation in the death of special CBI judge BH Loya to a junior judge led to the ‘revolt’.
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6. 'People divided more than ever'
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Speaking at an event organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) to bid farewell to incumbent Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Gogoi on Monday said people are divided "more than ever" along the lines of caste, religion and ideology and what one should wear, eat or say are no longer insignificant questions about personal life. He asserted that beliefs must be constantly evaluated on the touchstone of constitutional morality, which must prevail when there arises any doubt or conflict, and said this is true patriotism to the Constitution.
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7. Praise for outgoing CJI Dipak Misra
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Justice Gogoi praised the outgoing CJI Dipak Misra saying that his greatest contribution has been to civil liberties, and cited his recent verdicts in this regard.
Justice Gogoi said Justice Misra was a remarkable judge. He said that "if we fail in endeavour to hold true to our Constitutional ideals, we will continue to kill, hate each other", and added that the judges in the Supreme Court are all committed and they will remain committed. "We live in times when what we should eat, wear have stopped being little things of our personal lives," Justice Gogoi said while addressing the farewell function for the CJI. Justice Misra will retire as the CJI on Tuesday.
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8. Plans to tackle backlog of cases
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Last week, Justice Gogoi expressed deep concerns about the massive backlog of cases. "Pendency is bringing a lot of disrepute. In fact if I may say so, it has the potential of making the system irrelevant. The accused in a criminal case is getting a hearing after he has served out the sentence. The parties in a civil proceeding are getting their judgments in the second or third generation."
According to reports, currently there are 33 million pending cases and 90% of them are in lower courts. However, even the Supreme Court has unresolved nearly 57,000 cases. Successive CJIs have sought to curb this festering problem. CJI designate Gogoi made it clear that this will be top of his agenda.
(Photo: PTI)
