Supreme Court dismisses plea challenging appointment of Ranjan Gogoi as next CJI

The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday dismissed a plea challenging an appointment of next Chief Justice of India (CJI), Justice Ranjan Gogoi. The petition filed by an advocates RP Luthra and Satyaveer Sharma sought quashing of the order of his appointment as CJI, but the court dismissed the plea saying, the petition was’devoid of merits’.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said, “We are of the view that it is not the stage to interfere (with the appointment).” The petitioner raised concern over the press conference called by the top four Supreme Court judges including Ranjan Gogoi. The petitioner called that press conference was an attempt to arouse public furore in the country in the names of certain internal differences in this court.

The petition comes days after, senior most judge justice Ranjan Gogoi was appointed as Dipak Misra’s successor on September 13 by President Ram Nath Kovind. According to the report, the appointment came after Misra adhered to the tradition of recommending the most senior judge after him for the high office despite Gogoi being one of the judges who had raised questions on the CJI’s allocation of cases to benches in the apex court.

“This act of the four senior-most judges of the court was not less than a sabotage to the judicial system of the country,” the petition stated.

“The petitioners are aggrieved of the actions and omissions on the part of respondent 1 (Union of India) and respondent 2 (Chief Justice of India), which has resulted into appointment of respondent 3 (Justice Ranjan Gogoi) as the Chief Justice of India instead of reprimanding him for his illegal and anti-institutional act”, petitioner further stated.

The petition had also claimed that,  “Act of Respondent 1 and Respondent 2 is illegal and unconstitutional and also against the canons of law because the appointment to the highest post of the judiciary has been awarded to a person who is guilty of committing judicial impropriety and judicial misconduct”.

Ranjan Gogoi will be the 46th Chief Justice of India, he will have a tenure of 13 months starting from October 3, 2018 to November 2019. The most important case that will be headed by Ranjan Gogoi is the updation of the Assam National Register of Citizens.

Also read: Abhishek Singhvi: Supreme Court verdict a ‘slap on the face of BJP’