Ranjan Gogoi: Former Chief Justice of India

The Indian jurist and former barrister Ranjan Gogoi (born on November 18, 1954) spent seven years on the Supreme Court of India, first as a judge from 2012 to 2018 and then for 13 months as the 46^th Chief Justice of India from 2018 to 2019. On March 16, 2020, President Ram Nath Kovind nominated him to be a member of the Rajya Sabha. Gogoi was a judge on the Gauhati High Court before moving on to the Punjab and Haryana High Courts, where he later rose to the position of chief justice. He is currently a Rajya Sabha member of the Committee on External Affairs.

Personal Details

Gogoi was an Ahom dynasty descendant who was born and raised in Dibrugarh and comes from a political family. His grandmother, Padma Kumari Gohain, was one of the first female MLAs and one of the first female ministers in Assam. His maternal grandparents were also state lawmakers. For two months in 1982, his father, Kesab Chandra Gogoi, led Assam as Chief Minister. The only Chief Justice who is also a Chief Minister's son is Gogoi. Shanti Priya Gogoi, his mother, was a well-known social activist who started an NGO called SEWA in 2000, two years after Kesab Chandra Gogoi passed away in 1998. Four of Gogoi's five siblings also achieved success in their separate fields of work.

Carrier

Gogoi attended Cotton University for his undergraduate studies before completing his higher education at the University of Delhi's Faculty of Law. He became a member of the bar in 1978 and worked for JP Bhattacharjee at the Gauhati High Court. In 1991, he started his own practice, and in 1999, he was appointed senior counsel by the court. From 2001 to 2010, he presided over the Gauhati High Court, and from 2010 to 2011, the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He served as the Punjab and Haryana High Court's Chief Justice from 2011 to 2012.

The Book of His Autobiography

In response to a question about the book's title, Mr. Gogoi stated that he had thought of calling it "Justice for Judges" because the entire purpose of authoring the book was to inspire the public to see judges outside of their offices—to make a person sit at a table. If someone reads the book carefully and with a little patience, the author advises, "It really means trying and understanding your judges, trying and understanding the kind of judging they are doing, trying and understanding their compulsion, their values, their ethics, and their slightly different professional practices." "Because if you do not understand your judges in the same way that they do, they will probably perform poorly."

Ranjan Gogoi-Related Controversy

Ranjan Gogoi, a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, has experienced controversy frequently throughout his professional life. Ranjan Gogoi initially attracted attention when he overturned a High Court ruling in the 2011 death of a woman who was raped by a train in Kerala, for which the High Court rendered a death sentence judgment. A woman was raped in Kerala and then tossed into a train.

However, the sentence was amended to life in prison by Ranjan Gogoi's bench. He received criticism from numerous social organizations as a result. He was also chastised for authoring an article at the same time by former judge Markandeyu Katju.

Sexual Harassment Allegations

A former Supreme Court employee accused Gogoi of sexual harassment in April 2019. In papers, the woman claimed that on October 10–11, 2018, the Chief Justice forced his body against hers without her consent. Gogoi denied the accusations and called them a plot to undermine the independence of the court.

A month later, a three-judge internal investigative committee exonerated him. Several activists, prominent members of the legal community, and two retired Supreme Court justices also voiced their criticism of the procedures.

Major Case Laws

• Markandey Katju ‘‘Provocation’’case − Former Supreme Court justice Markandey Katju publicly expressed his disgust with the Gogoi-led bench's decision to exonerate the accused of attempted murder in the Soumya rape and murder case, which was the subject of significant opposition and criticism. Justice Gogoi served Katju with a contempt notice, which was later overturned after Katju consented to submit a written apology, but it was determined that his words were sufficient to constitute contempt of court.

• M Siddiq (D) Thr Lrs v. Mahant Suresh Das & ors − The Ayodhya Dispute Case is the common name for this situation. CJI Ranjan Gogoi and other judges rendered a decision in this matter. In this instance, the group speaking for the Hindu faction claimed that a temple had once stood on the contested territory but had been destroyed by Babur, a Mughal ruler.

  The Muslim side, however, asserted that the disputed site cannot be claimed by Hindus because a mosque known as the Babri Masjid was constructed there. In this case, the court determined that a temple had been there before the Babri Masjid was constructed. The archaeological investigation that claimed to have discovered the ruins of a massive temple-like building beneath the Babri Masjid served as the foundation for the court's ruling. As a result, the court granted Shri Ram Virajman's deity the title to the land. The court also allocated 5 acres of land in Ayodhya for the construction of a mosque. In this case, the court also determined that Ram Janmabhoomi is not a legal person.

FAQs

Q1. Who had appointed Ranjan Gogoi as the chief justice of India?

Ans. Former President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Ranjan Gogoi as the chief justice of India.

Q2. How many courts justice Ranjan Gogoi served before being appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court?

Ans. Before being appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court, justice Gogoi served two high courts namely, Gauhati High Court and Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Mukesh Kumar

Updated on: 09-Feb-2023

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