NEW DELHI / TIRUPATI: Justice Ranjan Gogoi, the first person from northeast to reach the top of the judiciary and credited for bringing the curtains down on the decades-old Ayodhya land dispute, retired as the Chief Justice of India on Sunday.
Justice Gogoi offered prayers at the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala near Tirupati on Sunday. He was accompanied by his wife Rupanjali Gogoi, a temple official said.
He will be succeeded by Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde who has decided several key cases and was also part of the recent Ayodhya verdict.
Justice Bobde, 63, would prefer a conservative approach on the issue of disclosing the Collegium’s entire deliberations on the rejection of names for appointment in the higher judiciary.
Hailing from a family of lawyers from Maharashtra, he is the son of eminent senior advocate Arvind Shriniwas Bobde.
With Justice Gogoi’s retirement, Justice R Banumathi will become part of the Supreme Court Collegium. She will be the second-ever woman to be part of the Collegium.
Justice Ruma Pal was the first and last woman judge to be part of the Collegium. Justice Ruma Pal retired in 2006.