Justice Ranjan Gogoi: Furthering family tradition

Senior advocate of Gauhati HC, Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury, said Justice Gogoi has been always very clear in his legal acumen.
Justice Ranjan Gogoi. (File | PTI)
Justice Ranjan Gogoi. (File | PTI)

GUWAHATI: Being the best in what one does has been a family tradition for soon-to-be Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi. Appointed by President Ram Nath Kovind, he is set to be the first CJI from the Northeast.

Justice Gogoi made his name as a young lawyer and then as a young judge of Gauhati High Court where he sorted out some 10,000 cases in the state’s education department by going out of the box. This habit of being the very best was perhaps handed over through generations. 

Kesab Chandra Gogoi and his son Justice Ranjan Gogoi had started off as lawyers with a purpose. One went to become the Chief Minister of Assam while the other is on the threshold of being the CJI soon after his and that of Rohinton Fali Nariman’s landmark directive to the Assam government to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) which will have far-reaching implications for the country at large.

Kesab Chandra Gogoi was a politician from the Congress party who had served as the CM for two months in 1982. The family hails from Upper Assam’s Dibrugarh town.

Justice Gogoi, who was enrolled at the Bar in 1978, practised at the Gauhati HC. He was made a permanent judge in 2001. Transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 9, 2010, he became its chief justice on February 12, 2011, and was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on April 23, 2012.

Reminiscing Justice Gogoi’s life in Gauhati HC, Atul Chandra Buragohain, who is the president of Gauhati High Court Bar Association, said Justice Gogoi was a very sincere advocate and a good orator. 

“He was loved by all and he could draw respect from his colleagues. Although he seems to be reserved, he was liked by everyone. His personality was unique. He invented a mechanism by which he had sorted out some 10,000 cases relating to the education department. He had combined the cases of similar nature and heard them together. He finished them in a single stroke,” Buragohain said. 

Asked about his expectation of Justice Gogoi once he don’s the CJI’s mantle, Buragohain, who is a former advocate general of Assam, said Justice Gogoi would not limit himself to delivering judgments, he would also deliver messages to the society and try to reform the whole system which is what he is known for.

Senior advocate of Gauhati HC, Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury, said Justice Gogoi has been always very clear in his legal acumen.

“From before, we knew he will scale greater heights in life. He is always clear in his legal acumen and his submissions in the court were very good,” Choudhury said.

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