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

New Delhi | The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected plea challenging the appointement of Ranjan Gogoi as the next Chief Justice of India.

Terming the petition as ‘devoid of merits’ the Apex Court bench headed by present Chief Justice Deepak Mishra said, “We are of the view that it is not the stage to interfere (with the appointment).”

Petitioners RP Luthra and Satyaveer Sharma in their petition said that they are seeking adjudication of the question of law for which they are relying on the contents of the press conference of January 12, called by four senior judges (Justices Chelameswar (since retd), Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph) of the apex court. The plea added that the petitioners were relying on an undated letter addressed to Chief Justice of India and circulated by the four apex court judges. The plea stated, “This act of the four senior most judges of the court was not less than a sabotage to the judicial system of the country. They tried to arouse public furore in the country in the names of certain internal differences in this court.”

“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,”the plea added. The petitioner further demanded to withdraw the order of appointment of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the Chief Justice of India with effect from October 3.

Earlier this month on September 3, the President of India appointment Ranjan Gogoi as the 46th Chief Justice of India replacing CJI Deepak Misra who is set to retire on October 3. Ranjan Gogoi who would be the first CJI from the North East region will continue as the CJI for a period of 13 months until his retirement at November 17, 2019.