NEW DELHI, Sept 1 - Justice Ranjan Gogoi is all set to be appointed the next Chief Justice of India, reports said.
The current Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, as a matter of convention, reportedly recommended Justice Gogoi to be his successor.
Justice Gogoi�s tenure will last till November 17, 2019. He is set to take oath as the next Chief Justice of India on October 3.
According to reports, the incumbent Chief Justice of India Dipak Mishra has endorsed Justice Gogoi�s name and is likely to send his recommendations by September 3.
Earlier, the Union Law Ministry had sent a formal letter to Chief Justice Dipak Misra seeking the name of his successor. As per convention, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court is appointed the Chief Justice of India and Justice Ranjan Gogoi by virtue of his seniority should be next in line.
Justice Ranjan Gogoi was appointed a Judge in the Gauhati High Court on February 28, 2001. He later became the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on February 12, 2011. Justice Gogoi was elevated to the top court in April 2012.
Justice Gogoi, who hails from Assam, is currently heading the special bench that is monitoring the update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to identify citizens and detect illegal migrants.
Justice Gogoi was also among the four Supreme Court judges who held the unprecedented press conference in January this year, raising concerns about the administration of the apex court and the independence of judiciary.
In July, Justice Gogoi had said that a �revolution, not reform� is needed to keep the institution of judiciary serviceable for common people, asserting that the judiciary would have to be more �pro-active� and on the �front foot�.
Delivering the third Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture on �Vision of Justice�, the Supreme Court judge said that the judiciary was the �last bastion of hope� and has been �a proud guardian of the great constitutional vision�.
In the January press conference, Justice Gogoi along with Justices J Chelameswar (since retired), MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph had said that the situation in the top court was �not in order� and many �less than desirable� things have taken place. Unless this institution is preserved, �democracy will not survive in this country,� the four judges had said.
�It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of this country that the Chief Justice is only first amongst the equals � nothing more or nothing less,� the four judges, in their seven-page letter to the Chief Justice, had said.
�It is with great anguish and concern that we have thought it proper to address this letter to you so as to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this court which have adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice delivering system and the independence of the high courts besides impacting the administrative functioning of the office of the Chief Justice of India,� the letter had further said.
�There have been instances where cases having far reaching consequences for the nation and the institution have been assigned by the chief justices of this court selectively to the benches �of their preference� without any rational basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs,� it had said.
