Justice Ranjan Gogoi sworn in as CJI, succeeds Dipak Misra

Justice Gogoi will have a tenure of a little over 13 months and would retire on November 17, 2019

Justice Ranjan Gogoi (pictured) was sworn in as the 46th Chief Justice of India on Wednesday after which he did some plain-speaking over urgent mentioning of cases in the Supreme Court (SC) for hearing, saying they will be disallowed till certain parameters are fixed unless someone is set to be “hanged or evicted”.

Gogoi, 63, becomes the first person from the Northeast to reach the top position of the judiciary and will have a tenure of a little over 13 months.

President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath to Justice Gogoi at a brief ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan’s historic Darbar Hall. Justice Gogoi took the oath in English in the name of god. He succeeds Justice Dipak Misra who retired Tuesday on attaining the age of 65 years. Several leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his predecessor Manmohan Singh and former premier H D Deve Gowda were present at the ceremony. “I congratulate Justice Ranjan Gogoi ji on taking oath as the Chief Justice of India. His experience, wisdom, insight and legal knowledge will benefit the country greatly. My best wishes for a fruitful tenure,” Modi tweeted.

Justice Misra had earlier this month recommended Justice Gogoi as his successor in accordance with the established practice of naming the senior-most judge after the CJI for the top post.

Speculation over Justice Gogoi's appointment as the next CJI arose after the court's four most senior judges, including Justice Gogoi, called a press conference on January 11 and criticised Justice Misra on various issues, especially the manner of allocation of cases to certain benches.