Assam created history on Wednesday as son of the soil, Justice Ranjan Gogoi was sworn in as the new Chief Justice of India (CJI) by President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi.
Gogoi is the 46th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India.
The ceremony was attended by top political leaders of the country including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and others. Former Prime Ministers Dr Manmohan Singh and several other opposition leaders also attended the swearing-in ceremony.
Gogoi after the swearing-in immediately went up to his mother who was present at the function and sought blessings from her.
Gogoi’s tenure as the CJI will continue till November 17, 2019 when he will turn 65 years.
Born on November 18, 1954, Ranjan Gogoi’s father Keshab Chandra Gogoi, a Congressman served as the ninth Chief Minister of Assam in 1982.
Keshab Gogoi was also a Member of the Legislative Assembly representing Dibrugarh constituency.
Ranjan Gogoi joined the Bar in 1978 and practiced in the Gauhati High Court where he was made a permanent judge on February 28, 2001.
He was then transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 9, 2010 and became the Chief Justice there.
Gogoi first became a judge of the Supreme Court on April 23, 2012.
Gogoi is expected to preside over several major cases during his tenure, including the Ram Janmaboomi-Babri Masjid title suit and the National Register for Citizens (NRC).
Gogoi will also decide on the three-judge bench that will hear the Ayodhya case when the hearings will commence.
Gogoi, however, will always be remembered for holding an unprecedented press conference on January 12 early this year along with Justices J Chelameswar, MB Lokur, and Kurian Joseph where they questioned allocation of cases by outgoing CJI Dipak Misra.