Justice Gogoi to be next CJI

Justice Ranjan Gogoi, one of the four judges who revolted against Chief Justice Dipak Misra earlier this year, was on Thursday appointed the next Chief Justice of India (CJI).

President Ram Nath Kovind designated Justice Gogoi as the next CJI to succeed Chief Justice Dipak Misra who will demit office on October 2.

Justice Gogoi will be sworn in by the President on October 3 and would preside over Court Number One, the Chief Justice's court.

Justice Gogoi, known for his no-nonsense approach, will be the 46th CJI and will have a term of 13 months 15 days.

He was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court on April 23, 2012.

Along with three senior-most Judges of the apex court -- Justices J. Chelameswar, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- Justice Gogoi held an unprecedented press conference in January this year raising, among other things, questions over assigning cases to different judges by Chief Justice Misra.

Born on November 18, 1954, Justice Gogoi was enrolled as an advocate in 1978. He practised in the Gauhati High Court on constitutional, taxation and company matters.

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.

Justice Gogoi is presiding over a bench also having Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman that is monitoring the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

He also heads a the bench that is hearing a plea for setting up special courts to exclusively try criminal cases against the sitting and former lawmakers across the country.

In pursuance to his December 2017 order, 12 special courts were set up across the country to try criminal cases against the politicians.

The emphasis is that in pursuance to 2014 direction of the top court, the trial in criminal cases against the lawmakers should conclude in one year.

Justice Gogoi had on Wednesday said that if required they would monitor the compliance of its order as it asked 19 States and six Union territories to give the details of the number of cases pending against the lawmakers in these states.

He is also on the bench along with Chief Justice Misra hearing the Sahara matter.

Justice Gogoi had pulled up Justice Markandey Katju for adversely commenting on a top court judgment in which it had set aside the death sentence of a Kerala man accused of raping and murdering a young woman in 2011.

Justice Katju had retired as judge of the Supreme Court on September 19, 2011.

The bench headed by Justice Gogoi had on November 11, 2016 issued notice to Justice Katju as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for casting aspersion against the judges in one of his blogs relating to a case.

However, contempt proceedings were shelved on January 6, 2017, after the court accepted unconditional apology tendered by him.

--IANS

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