New Delhi: Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who was sworn on Wednesday by President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi, will be remembered as the first justice from the Northeast to hold the topmost post. Justice Gogoi succeeded Justice Dipak Misra as the 46th Chief Justice of India for a tenure of 13 months till November 17, 2019.

Forty-five judges have served as the CJI in the close to seven decades of the Supreme Court’s existence. Interestingly, no other Judge from the North East had ever been the Chief Justice of India. In fact, a very insignificant number of judges from the North East have made it to the collegium.

Family and childhood

He was born on November 18, 1954, to former Assam Chief Minister Keshab Chandra Gogoi.   Justice Gogoi finished his schooling from Don Bosco School, Dibrugarh, before pursuing history from St Stephen’s College in Delhi University. 

Early life in Gauhati High Court

Gogoi first joined the Bar Association in 1978 and practiced at the Gauhati High Court, which was set up in 1948. He was designated as Senior Counsel in 1999 at the age of 45 and was made a Permanent Judge there on February 28, 2001. 

He was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 9, 2010 and became the Chief Justice there. He was first became a judge of the Supreme Court on April 23, 2012.

His colleagues in the Gauhati High Court recall him as a soft-spoken, reserved person, who commanded respect. 

Key cases and judgment

Justice Gogoi has presided over several important cases, including the National Register of Citizens, Arushi Talwar murder and others.  

Re-assessment of income of Amitabh Bachchan

In May 2016, a bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice PC Pant quashed a 2012 Bombay High Court order that dismissed Commissioner of Income Tax 's power to re-assess income of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan. The bench allowed tax officials to investigate the discrepancies related to Bachchan's re-revised tax return of the assessment year 2001-02, as tax assessing officer failed to verify sources of his expenses. 

Contempt of court and Markandey Katju

In 2016, he became the first to issue a contempt notice to a former SC judge — Markandey Katju — for “an attack on the judges and not the judgment” in the Soumya rape and murder case. 

Aarushi Talwar case

He headed the bench in the Aarushi murder and is currently heading a bench that is hearing the CBI’s plea against Rajesh and Nupur Talwar’s acquittal in the case

UP and ex-CM residences

In May 2018, a bench including Justice Gogoi revoked a proposal from the Uttar Pradesh government that allowed all former chief ministers to retain their official residences

Government advertisements

Justice Gogoi in a judgment prohibited the government from using photographs of anyone else except the Prime Minister, President and the Chief Justice of India for advertising purposes.

Cases he would decide

CJI Gogoi is expected to preside over the Ram Janmaboomi-Babri Masjid title suit and the National Register for Citizens.

The Supreme Court is monitoring the compilation of the NRC in Assam. It  has ordered re-verification of 10% of the people in Assam, who were excluded from draft NRC published earlier this year. The case is going to come up soon.

Gogoi will also decide on the three-judge bench that will hear the Ayodhya case and when the hearings will commence.

(With agency inputs)