64-year-old Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who assumes office as the 46th Chief Justice of India on October 3 after incumbent Dipak Misra retires, has a slew of keenly watched cases. Some of the most anticipated among them is Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid fate; Rajiv Gandhi assassination case; answers to who killed Aarushi Talwar; the monitoring of the preparation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam, which happens to be Justice Gogoi’s native State.
Gogoi is known to be a tough judge who speaks his mind and has been in the legal profession for four decades. He was born in Assam in 1958 and joined the bar in 1978.
MYSTERIOUS ARUSHI TALWAR MURDER CASE –
Justice Ranjan Gogoi may likely be on the Supreme Court bench that will decide whether the Allahabad High Court was correct in finding Rajesh and Nupur Talwar not guilty of murdering their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj.
It was a Justice Gogoi-led bench that heard the Central Bureau of Investigation’s plea to overturn the Allahabad HC judgment. The Gogoi bench agreed to hear the plea and said that it will hear the matter along with a similar plea filed by Hemraj’s wife.
Fourteen-year-old Aarushi Talwar was found murdered at her home on May 16, 2008. Hemraj’s body was recovered on May 17.
RAMJANMABHOOMI-BABRI MASJID CASE –
Though the incumbent Chief Justice, Dipak Misra, is scheduled to pronounce a judgment this month on whether or not the appeals should be referred to a Constitution Bench, the next and decisive step in connection with 1992 Babri Masjid demolition dispute would lie with Justice Gogoi.
NIKAH HALALA –
It was not long ago that the Supreme Court heard challenges against customs, religious and personal law practices. It examined a series of religious issues from triple talaq to a temple ban on women of a certain age to the right to pray of Parsi women, who marry outside their faith, in the Tower of Silence. A batch of petitions challenging nikah halala— which involves a female divorcee marrying someone else, consummating the marriage and then getting a divorce in order to make it allowable to remarry her previous husband — awaits Justice Gogoi’s attention.
DRAFT REPORT OF ASSAM’S NRC –
Out of 3,29,91,385 applicants 2,89,83,677 were found eligible for inclusion in second and final draft of NRC that was released on 30 July, while over 40 lakh have been left out of the list. Now, Justice Gogoi, who will chair as the first CJI from his state will examining a draft standard procedure to receive the objections and claims of over 40 lakh people left out of the draft NRC.
Born on November 18, 1954, Justice Gogoi was enrolled as an advocate in 1978. He practiced in the Guwahati high court on constitutional, taxation and company matters. Justice Gogoi will have a tenure of a little over 13 months and would retire on November 17, 2019.
