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Gogoi’s last day in office: Video-conference, a short sitting mark last working day
New Delhi
New Delhi
For a judge who claimed to have “discharged his debt to the nation” by taking on then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, and becoming part of an unprecedented press conference by four senior judges who were critical of Misra’s functioning last year, Ranjan Gogoi’s last working day as the CJI was unusually muted.
Gogoi did not speak to the media or at the farewell function organized by the Supreme Court Bar Association on Friday.
He is the possibly the only chief justice not to have spoken at the farewell function organized by the bar association for a CJI.
Although justice Gogoi’s 13-month tenure as the CJI comes to an end when he demits his office on Sunday, he attended the Supreme Court for the last time on Friday.
Justice Gogoi presided over Court 1 with the CJI-designate S A Bobde. He dealt with 10 cases in a little less than five minutes and retired to his chambers.
Justice Gogoi signed off on the day by holding a video conference with 650 high court judges and 15,000 district and taluka judges across the country.
According to people aware of the content of the video conference, justice Gogoi thanked all judges for supporting him and also for working towards reducing the backlog of cases in the courts.
“It was more like a pep talk to the judges. He said that the institution was facing problems but despite that judges have to keep working,” one judge of a high court, who took part in the video conference but did not wish to be identified, said. “I think it was a good gesture on the part of justice Gogoi.”
Earlier in the day, justice Gogoi also went to Rajghat, the memorial dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, like he did on the day he took over as CJI.
Justice Gogoi will be remembered as one who was responsible for delivering and being part of some landmark verdicts in cases including the Ayodhya title dispute and the Rafale jet fighter deal. He was part of the benches that referred the Sabrimala case, which lies at the intersection of faith and law, to a seven-judge bench and brought the office of the CJI under the Right to Information Act.
As the head of the five-judge bench that dealt with the contentious Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute , Gogoi was responsible for concluding the hearings in the case in 40 days. Not only did he persuade lawyers to stick to the deadline, but also delivered a verdict in a little less than 30 days, putting to quietus a very contentious issue.
Justice Ranjan Gogoi was also singly responsible for judicially pushing the National Register of Citizens for Assam, aimed at identifying illegal immigrants living in the state.
His term was marred by allegations of sexual harassment against him by a staffer at his home office although he was eventually given a clean chit after an enquiry by three sitting judges of the Supreme Court.
Questions have also been raised on the appointment of justice Akhil Kureshi as chief justice of the Tripura high court after the government resisted Kureshi’s appointment as chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh high court.
Supreme Court senior advocate Jaideep Gupta described Gogoi as a “no-nonsense kind of a judge.”
“Work was done, judgments delivered and no one complained like in the case of his predecessor. In the end, there was a series of judgments that he slogged out and it is very creditable. Although there were moments of controversy, they should not overtake our understanding of the work done by justice Gogoi.”
Senior advocate Anil Mishra said: “Justice Gogoi’s legacy to the institution is his body of work and role as an able administrator. He was able to get the number of judges increased in the Supreme Court and also worked towards reducing pendency in courts.”
