Justice Gogoi sworn in 46th Chief Justice of India

New Delhi: Justice Ranjan Gogoi was Wednesday sworn in the 46th Chief Justice of India (CJI).

President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath to the 63-year-old Gogoi at a brief ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan's Darbar Hall. He succeeds Justice Dipak Misra, who demitted office on October 2, with Monday being his last working day in the top court.

He is the first judge from the northeast to attain the highest office of the Supreme Court.

Justice Gogoi will have a tenure of a little over 13 months and would retire on November 17, 2019

Born on November 18, 1954, Justice Gogoi was enrolled as an advocate in 1978. He practised in the Gauhati High Court on constitutional, taxation and company matters.

He was appointed as a permanent judge of the Guwahati High Court on February 28, 2001.

On September 9, 2010, he was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He was appointed as chief justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court on February 12, 2011 and then a judge of the Supreme Court on April 23, 2012.

Justice Misra had earlier this month recommended Justice Gogoi as his successor as per established practice of naming the senior-most judge after the CJI for the post.

Speculation over Justice Gogoi's appointment as the next CJI arose after the court's four senior-most judges, including Justice Gogoi, called a press conference in January and criticised the then CJI Misra on various issues, especially the manner of allocation of cases to certain benches.

Justices J Chelameswar (since retired), Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph were the others who addressed the press conference, perhaps a first in the history of the Indian judiciary.

Justice Gogoi had on Monday praised the outgoing CJI Misra saying that his greatest contribution has been to civil liberties, and cited his recent verdicts in this regard.

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