Ranjan Gogoi

Ranjan Gogoi (born 18 November 1954) is an Indian former advocate and judge who served as the 46th Chief Justice of India from 2018 to 2019, having previously served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India from 2012 to 2018. He is currently a Member of the Rajya Sabha, having been nominated by President Ram Nath Kovind on 16 March 2020. Gogoi served as a judge in the Gauhati High Court from 2001 to 2010, and then was transferred as a judge to the Punjab and Haryana High Court from 2010 to 2011 where he later was the Chief Justice from 2011 to 2012. He is also a member of the Committee on External Affairs in the Rajya Sabha.
Born and raised in Dibrugarh, Gogoi is from a political family and descends from the Ahom dynasty. His maternal grandparents were both state legislators, and his grandmother, Padma Kumari Gohain, was one of the first female MLAs and one of the first female ministers in Assam cabinets. His father, Kesab Chandra Gogoi served as the Chief Minister of Assam for two months in 1982. Gogoi is the only chief justice to have been the son of a Chief Minister. His mother, Shanti Priya Gogoi, was a prominent social activist, who founded an NGO named SEWA, in 2000, two years after the death of Kesab Chandra Gogoi in 1998. One of five children, Gogoi's four siblings, also excelled in their respective careers. He is also the first chief justice from Northeast India.
Gogoi studied at Cotton University and later completed his higher studies at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. He enrolled at the bar in 1978 and practised at the Gauhati High Court under advocate JP Bhattacharjee. He began to practise independently in 1991 and became a senior counsel in 1999 at the court. His tenure on the Punjab and Haryana High Court saw orders which questioned the CBI’s promotion of SPS Rathore, despite the Ruchika Girhotra case, as well as several other judgements. He was nominated to the Supreme Court in 2012 and was sworn in by S. H. Kapadia. Gogoi made several important and landmark judgements during his tenure including the updating of the National Register of Citizens for Assam, and the Soumya Murder case. He also served on the bench that created special courts to try MLAs and MPs, and ruled against the Uttar Pradesh Government law wherein former Chief Ministers are allowed to occupy government bungalows. He was appointed the Chief Justice of India in 2018 and served until 2019. During his tenure, he oversaw several more important judgements, including the judgement on the Ayodhya dispute and the Rafale deal, before retiring in 2019. In 2020 he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, and has served on the committee on communications and information technology, and the committee on external affairs.
He is the third Supreme Court judge to serve the Rajya Sabha, and the first to be nominated to his seat, after Ranganath Mishra and Baharul Islam, who were elected as members of the Indian National Congress. He has also written an autobiography titled "Justice for the Judge: An Autobiography". In 2019, he was listed as the third most powerful person in India.
Ranjan Gogoi was born in a Tai-Ahom family with his family residence at K.C. Gogoi Path in Dibrugarh on 18 November 1954. His mother's family ancestry can be traced back to Ahom Kings Swargadeo Rudra Singha, Rajeswar Singha of the Ahom kingdom. His father was Kesab Chandra Gogoi, an Indian National Congress politician who was the Chief Minister of Assam from 13 January 1982 to 19 March 1982. Kesab Chandra Gogoi also was an MLA from Dibrugarh, as well as being a cabinet minister multiple times over his political career. His mother was Shanti Gogoi, who was a social activist and writer. Shanti Gogoi founded the Socio Educational Welfare Association (SEWA), an NGO which aimed to help marginalised communities, and was its president from 2002 to 2016. Shanti Gogoi was an aunt of Shrinjan Rajkumar Gohain. Both his maternal grandparents Jogesh Chandra Borgohain and Padma Kumari Gohain were legislators and ministers in pre-and post-Independence India. His maternal grandfather, Jogesh Chandra Borgohain, served as a Member of the Assam Legislative Council in the 1930s. His maternal grandmother, Padma Kumari Gohain, was elected an MLA from Moran thrice and was the social welfare minister in the Bimala Prasad Chaliha cabinet and social welfare and sericulture minister in the Mahendra Mohan Choudhry cabinet.
Gogoi was the second child and second son among 5 children. Each of his 4 siblings became proficient in their respective careers. His elder brother, Anjan, became an Air Marshal in the Indian Air Force until his retirement in 2013 and later became a member of the North Eastern Council. His younger brother, Nirjan became a consultant urologist in the United Kingdom and his two younger sisters, Indira and Nandita, were members of the Assam civil service until their retirement. His elder brother, Anjan, served as the President of SEWA after their mother's retirement in 2016. His younger sister, Nandita, is the current President of SEWA.
During Gogoi's childhood in Dibrugarh with his brother Anjan, his father Kesab Chandra Gogoi said only one of them could go to the Sainik School in Goalpara. As both Ranjan and Anjan wanted to go, and with neither relenting, Kesab Chandra Gogoi told them to decide via a coin toss. Anjan won the coin toss, and went to the Sainik School in 1964, then to the National Defence Academy which eventually culminated in his career in the Indian Air Force. Ranjan Gogoi attended Don Bosco School in Dibrugarh, which was only a 20-minute walk away from his home. He then studied at Cotton College (currently known as Cotton University) in Guwahati before moving to Delhi to complete his higher studies. He then studied at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, graduating with honours in history. After completing his bachelor's degree, Gogoi cracked the Civil Services Examination to fulfill his father's wish. However, he was not chosen for the service he wanted, which led to his pursuit of law instead. Later on, he told his father his interest lay in pursuing law. He graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi where he received a law degree.
In 1982, the future Law Minister Abdul Muhib Mazumder asked Kesab Chandra Gogoi if his son would also become the Chief Minister of Assam someday. Kesab Chandra Gogoi said his son Ranjan Gogoi would not emulate him, but had the potential to become the Chief Justice of India. His father's assessment proved prophetic. His elder brother Anjan Gogoi confirmed this anecdote in an interview with the Times of India.
Gogoi enrolled at the bar in 1978, and practiced at the Gauhati High Court under senior advocate JP Bhattacharjee. His autobiography, Justice for the Judge, said this was due to his father, Kesab Chandra Gogoi, asking for the most esteemed lawyer in Gauhati to take Ranjan Gogoi as a junior. In 1991, he began to practise independently on constitutional, taxation, services and company matters, after Bhattacharjee moved to Kolkata. Gogoi became extremely well known due to his contribution in making Tezpur Mental Hospital an actual research institution. He again rose to prominence after representing then Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta in an investigation by the CBI into a letter-of-credit scandal. In 1999, he became a senior counsel at the High Court. He was made a permanent judge of the Gauhati High Court on 28 February 2001. During his tenure at the Gauhati High Court, he decided to combine similar cases at the court and hear them together. Around 10,000 cases of the education department of Assam were resolved in this way. The Supreme Court collegium undertook a policy where a senior High Court judge, who is due to become the chief justice of another High Court, should be transferred to the High Court before the retirement of the incumbent chief justice. Following this policy, Gogoi was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 9 September 2010.
Gogoi became the acting Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 3 January 2011, after the retirement of Mukul Mudgal. He was sworn in as the Chief Justice on 12 February 2011 by Governor Jagannath Pahadia at Raj Bhavan, Haryana. Several dignitaries were present at the ceremony, including Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Shivraj Patil and Parkash Singh Badal.
During his tenure at the Punjab and Haryana High Court, he made several judgements. In November 2010, a division bench of Gogoi and then Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal questioned the CBI on the promotion of SPS Rathore, despite the pending Ruchika Girhotra case against him. In 2011, Gogoi was on a division bench which was to hear a PIL into the case, but the case was later referred to another bench. On 27 January 2011, while acting chief justice, Gogoi was part of a division bench that ordered all private schools to keep 15% of their places vacant for the economically weaker sections in society, until 24 February 2011 (when the case was heard again). On 14 March 2011, Gogoi was part of a division bench that directed that the Camelot project was in the catchment area of the Sukhna Lake. On 22 April 2011, Gogoi was part of a bench that ordered that women are allowed to claim maternity leave benefits for the birth of their third child, while allowing a petition from a multipurpose health worker in Haryana. On 22 March 2012, Gogoi was on a division bench that ordered that the schedule of the user fees of the Pinjore-Parwanoo bypass be published in an official gazette and notified in the newspapers. On the 5 April, the bench ordered authorities to open the bypass by 6 April, which put an end to the delay in its opening.
On 23 April 2012, he was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court. He was sworn in as a justice of the Supreme Court of India by Chief Justice S. H. Kapadia. Many dignitaries were present, as well as Gogoi's mother, Shanti Priya Gogoi, and elder brother Anjan.
In October 2014, Gogoi praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign. He spoke on the matter while addressing an event for the fourth foundation day of the National Green Tribunal.
In October 2017, the Supreme court Collegium which consisted of Gogoi, with Chief Justice Dipak Misra, judges Jasti Chelameswar, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph, decided to make all of its decisions involving judicial appointments public. The collegium decided that the decisions were to be uploaded on the supreme court website in order to have transparency.
In his 6-year tenure as a judge on the Supreme Court, Gogoi delivered more than 603 judgements. At least 25 judgements were constitution bench judgements which were heard by 5 or more judges.
On 12 January 2018, Ranjan Gogoi and three other Supreme Court judges - Jasti Chelameswar, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph - became the first to hold a press conference. They alleged problems plaguing the court, in terms of failure in the justice delivery system and allocation of cases and told journalists the press conference was prompted by the issue of allocating to Justice Arun Mishra the case of the death of special Central Bureau of Investigation Judge B.H. Loya. Loya was a special CBI judge who had died in December 2014. Justice Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case of 2004, in which police officers and BJP chief Amit Shah were named. Later, Mishra recused himself from the case. Chelameswar retired on 30 June 2018, which made Gogoi the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, followed by Lokur and Joseph. Notwithstanding his seniority ranking, then-Chief Justice Dipak Misra, recommended Gogoi as his successor.
On 13 September 2018, following the recommendation of Misra on 4 September, President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Gogoi the next Chief Justice of India.
On 25 September 2018, a bench of Chief Justice Misra, A. M. Khanwilkar, and Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud asked an advocate to file a mention memo against the appointment of Gogoi as Chief Justice of India, after he commented on the matter to the court. On 26 September, the bench dismissed the plea from the two advocates.
On 3 October 2018, he was sworn in as the Chief Justice of India, succeeding Dipak Misra. He was administered the oath by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Durbar Hall in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Many dignitaries were present at the event, including Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sumitra Mahajan, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Derek O’Brien, Manmohan Singh, H. D. Deve Gowda, L. K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and many other prominent political figures. Gogoi's mother, Shanti Priya Gogoi, also attended the ceremony.
As Chief Justice, Gogoi attended numerous events including the Second swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi, and the swearing in of the first Lokpal Pinaki Chandra Ghose.
In November 2018, Gogoi created the Centre for Research and Planning (CRP) which he described as an "in-house think tank." In a press release, Gogoi stated that the CRP was established to "strengthen the knowledge infrastructure of the Supreme Court."
On 18 June 2019, Gogoi met with the Chief Justice of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Lebedev, to discuss judicial cooperation between the 2 countries.
On 22 June 2019, Gogoi wrote three letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting an increase in the number of judges in the Supreme Court and requesting for the increase in the retirement age of High Court Judges from 62 to 65. The suggestions were prompted by the 58,669 cases pending in the Supreme Court at the time. In two of the letters Gogoi wrote, he requested for constitutional amendments for the increase in the number of Supreme Court Judges, and the increase in retirement age for High Court judges. He wrote that the increase in retirement age would decrease the pendency of cases. The letters stated that there were many cases that had been pending for many years, including 26 cases that had been pending for 25 years. In a third letter, under articles 128 and 224A, Gogoi requested the revival of tenure appointments for retired High Court and Supreme Court judges, in order to assign them the cases which've been pending for years. On 31 July, the Union cabinet approved the increase in the number of Supreme Court judges from 31 to 34 (including the Chief Justice). On 18 September, four new judges were appointed to the Supreme Court.
During his tenure as chief justice, he recommended 14 judges to the Supreme Court. The 14 judges he recommended were Hemant Gupta, Ramayyagari Subhash Reddy, Mukesh Shah, Ajay Rastogi, Dinesh Maheshwari, Sanjiv Khanna, Aniruddha Bose, A. S. Bopanna, Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, Surya Kant, Krishna Murari, Shripathi Ravindra Bhat, V. Ramasubramanian and Hrishikesh Roy.
In April 2019, Gogoi was accused of sexual harassment by a former Supreme Court employee who filed affidavits stating that the Chief Justice had sexually harassed her on 10–11 October 2018 by pressing his body against hers against her will. Gogoi rejected the allegations and described it as a conspiratorial attempt to hamper the independence of the judiciary.
A three-judge internal investigation committee cleared him of the charges a month later. The proceedings were criticized by several activists, personalities from the legal fraternity and two retired justices of the Supreme Court.
Surbhi Karwa, the Master of Laws topper at National Law University, Delhi, skipped her convocation in protest, refusing to receive her degree from Gogoi due to the allegations against him. The university rubbished the report and expressed concern over the inconvenience caused to Gogoi. An in-house committee, chaired by Justice S.A. Bobde, cleared Gogoi of the charges. The complainant later reported that her family members were dismissed from the police service, though they were reinstated in June 2019.
In July 2021, Project Pegasus revealed 11 phone numbers associated with this women and her immediate family were also allegedly found on a database indicating the possibility of their phones being snooped.
A judicial bench consisting of Gogoi and R. Banumathi observed the widespread absence of arbitration agreements, thus he introduced new laws, wherein the court can refer parties to arbitration only with the written consent of the parties. This could be only be by a joint memorandum or application, not oral consent given by a counsel.
On 13 May 2015, a bench led by Gogoi and with justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose, banned the featuring of politicians in government advertisements. The ruling only made exceptions for the President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice and late political figures such as Mahatma Gandhi. Gogoi said such photos have the possibility to create a "personality cult" which was the "direct antithesis of democratic functioning."
On 13 July 2015, a bench of Gogoi and N. V. Ramana refused to hear a plea made by Ajay Maken, accusing the Delhi government of disregarding the May ruling.
On 18 May 2016, a bench consisting of Gogoi and Pinaki Chandra Ghose modified the May judgement in 2015, allowing photos of Chief Ministers, Union Ministers, Governors and state ministers in government advertisements.
In May 2016, a bench consisting of Gogoi and Prafulla C. Pant quashed a 2012 Bombay High Court order that had dismissed the Commissioner of Income Tax's power to re-assess the income of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan he allegedly obtained from the popular TV show Kaun Banega Crorepati.
In October 2002, Bachchan filed returns showing income of Rs 14.99 crore for the tax assessment year 2002–03. On 31 March 2003, he filed revised returns, declaring total income for that year in which he claimed expenses at 30% ad hoc amounting to Rs 6.31 crore, showing his income at Rs 8.11 crore. In March 2005, the Income Tax Department determined his income at Rs 56.41 crore for the year.
On 1 November 2017, a bench consisting of Gogoi and Navin Sinha asked the government to create special courts for MLAs and MPs, giving the government six weeks for the scheme & its costs to be planned.
On 14 December 2017, the bench of Gogoi and Sinhan ordered for 12 special courts to be created by 1 March 2018.
On 4 December 2018, a bench led by Gogoi, consisting of Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K. M. Joseph ordered the creation of the special courts in each district of Kerala and Bihar by 14 December.
Led by Gogoi, on 24 January 2018 the Supreme Court dismissed Advocate Kamini Jaiswal's petition seeking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigation into the attacks on Kanhaiya Kumar, the Jawaharlal Nehru University student union leader, on 15 and 17 February 2016 at Patiala House Court when he was being escorted to the court in a sedition case.
On 14 December 2018, a bench of Gogoi and with justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K. M. Joseph, reserved the verdict on the Rafale deal and dismissed all petitions seeking a probe into it.
On 14 November 2019, a bench consisting of Gogoi, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K. M. Joseph, dismissed petitions seeking a review of the verdict in December 2018.
23-year-old Soumya, an employee of a Kochi shopping mall, was assaulted by one Govindaswamy in an empty ladies' coach of the Ernakulam-Shoranur passenger train on 1 February 2011. She was allegedly pushed off from the slow-moving train, carried to a wooded area and subsequently raped. She succumbed to her injuries at the Government Medical College Hospital, Thrissur, on 6 February 2011. Govindaswamy was sentenced to death for murder by a trial court and the order was upheld by the Kerala High Court on 17 December 2013.
On 15 September 2016, the Apex Court Bench consisting of Gogoi, Pant and Uday Umesh Lalit set aside the death penalty and sentenced Govindaswamy to a maximum of life imprisonment for rape and other offences of causing bodily injuries.
Following the judgement of setting aside the death sentence of the accused in the said Govindaswamy vs State Of Kerala case, Gogoi and his bench were severely criticized by members of the public, members of the media, political leaders including the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, the Law Minister of Kerala, A.K. Balan, Senior CPI(M) leader V. S. Achuthanandan, and jurists including the Supreme Court lawyers Kaleeswaram Raj and Supreme Court Justice (retd) Markandey Katju.
In a blog entry on 17 September, retired judge Markandey Katju described the Supreme Court's verdict as a "grave error" not expected of "judges who had been in the legal world for decades". He criticised the Bench for believing "hearsay evidence" that Soumya jumped off the train instead of being pushed out by Govindaswamy:
In response, the SC bench led by Gogoi decided to convert that blog by Justice Markandey Katju into a review petition and asked him to personally appear in the court to debate. On 11 November 2016, he appeared in the court and submitted his arguments. The Court then dictated the order rejecting the review petition and issued a contempt of court notice to him stating that "Prima facie, the statements made seem to be an attack on the Judges and not on the judgment". On 6 January 2017, the Supreme Court accepted Katju's apology and closed the contempt proceedings against him.
On 5 December 2017, while disposing of a Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1020 of 2017, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha & Others Versus Union of India & Others clubbed with similar other petitions seeking clarification as to the meaning of people who are originally inhabitants of the state of Assam, a term which appears in a schedule to the Citizenship (Registration Of Citizens And Issue Of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 pertaining to special provision as to manner of preparation of National Register of Indian Citizen in state of Assam, the bench consisting of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton Fali Nariman observed that
The National Register of Indian Citizens or in short the NRC, at its root, comprises all the Local Registers of Indian Citizens containing details of Indian citizens usually residing in a village or rural area or town or ward or demarcated area (demarcated by the Registrar General of Citizen Registration) within a ward in a town or urban area.
The Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Card) Rules, 2003 were amended in November 2009 and March 2010 for preparation of National Register of Citizens by inviting applications from all the residents in Assam for updation of the old National Register of Citizens (NRC) 1951 in Assam based on relevant records. In order to undertake updating of NRC in all districts of Assam, pilot projects for updating of NRC in two blocks (one each in Kamrup and Barpeta districts) were started in June 2010. Subsequently, these pilot projects were stopped due to law and order problems. A second attempt to update the register for Assam was made by the Government of India through issuing a Gazette Notification in December 2013.
On 17 December 2014, the bench consisting of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton Fali Nariman mandated the Government of India to complete the finalization of final updated NRC for the entire state of Assam by 1 January 2016.
On 9 November 2019, Ranjan Gogoi and four other Supreme Court judges (Justices Sharad Arvind Bobde, Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S. Abdul Nazeer) pronounced the verdict on the Ayodhya Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case. After 40 days of daily hearings from 6 August, the five-judge bench unanimously decided in favour of awarding the land to the Hindu side to build a Lord Rama temple.
This was his last case before retirement on 17 November 2019.
During the 2019–2021 Jammu and Kashmir lockdown, Mehbooba Mufti's daughter Iltija Mufti asked the Supreme Court for permission to meet her mother and travel freely. Ranjan Gogoi, who was the Chief Justice of India at that time, asked, “Why do you want to move around? It is very cold in Srinagar.”
Gogoi was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by President Ram Nath Kovind. On 19 March 2020, he took the oath of office as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha in the presence of the Chairman of Rajya Sabha. Gogoi's nomination triggered debate and criticism on the benefits for judges post their retirement. Prior to his oath of office, ThePrint, an Indian news website, released an article on 5 of Gogoi's verdicts that favoured the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After taking his oath, Gogoi stated that the reason he accepted the nomination was that President Kovind requested his service and he could not deny the President.
Gogoi was appointed to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs on 23 July 2020. He resigned in September 2021, and instead became a member on the committee of communications and information technology. He resigned from the committee in May 2022, and on 5 May 2022 he again became a member on the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs.
On 2 September 2020, following an RTI request filed by India Today, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat revealed Gogoi to be the only member of the Rajya Sabha who does not take allowances or a salary.
Gogoi has stated he does not intend to become a minister or join a political party.
Gogoi is married to Rupanjali Gogoi, and they have two children together, a son Raktim Gogoi and a daughter Rashmi Gogoi, both of whom are advocates. His daughter, Rashmi, is married to the son of former Delhi High Court justice Valmiki Mehta.
Gogoi suffered from pancreatitis in the 1980s. He again suffered from the same disease in April 2011, when he was the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, and was admitted to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, and later was flown to the Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi for treatment.
Gogoi has visited numerous countries, including Russia, to attend the Conference of Chief Justices; Turkey, to attend the Conference of Islamic Countries as well as Indonesia, U.K, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
Gogoi is not on the social media platform Twitter, and several tweets were falsely attributed to Gogoi.
He is one of the 63 individuals in India covered by Z plus security provided by the Central Reserve Police Force.
When Gogoi became the Chief Justice of India on 3 October 2018, he was one of the 11 Supreme court justices who made their assets and finances public. He disclosed he had no car, and the only property he had was gifted to him by his mother in June 2015.
Gogoi has been appreciated highly by litigants and civilians for stating that the judiciary is ramshackled and it is useless going to court as many litigants have their cases being dragged for years and do not find respite. Gogoi also stated, in an interview in June 2023, that judges in the Supreme Court can be corrupt.
Media related to Ranjan Gogoi at Wikimedia Commons