NEW DELHI: Ten days after Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra recommended Justice Ranjan Gogoi as his successor, the government on Thursday announced the latter’s appointment as the next CJI. He will assume office on October 3. Justice Gogoi will have a tenure of 13 months and retire on November 17, 2019.
President Ramnath Kovind signed warrants of appointment of Justice Gogoi following which a notification announcing his appointment was issued. In a departure from convention, Justice Gogoi’s elevation as CJI was made public not by a communique from Rashtrapati Bhavan, but through an announcement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
An official at the PMO admitted the slip up to TNIE, saying, “It (the communication) was issued in a hurry. A communication from the Law Ministry will go out and a gazette notification will follow.” An announcement from the Law ministry followed.
Justice Gogoi will be the first person from the Northeast to serve as the CJI. He is known as a no-nonsense judge who often asks lawyers to maintain decorum in court.
Born in Dibrugarh, Assam, he went on to study at St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, from where he obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history. He then studied law at Delhi University, and moved to Guwahati in 1978 to set up his practice.
In 2001, Gogoi was appointed as a permanent judge of the Gauhati High Court, before being transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2010. Two years later, he was elevated to the Supreme Court.
First notice came from PMO
Breaking the norm, Justice Gogoi’s elevation was announced not by a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique, but by the PMO.