SC to hear plea challenging Ranjan Gogoi’s appointment as CJ

Guwahati (Assam), September26, 2018:

The Supreme Court (SC) will hear a plea challenging the appointment of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the next Chief Justice (CJ) of India on Wednesday.

A bench comprising of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, D Y Chandrachud and Justice A M Khanwilkar approached petitioner advocate R P Luthra to file the mentioning memo before the court master.

According to the plea- "The press conference of January 12 by the four senior most judges of the court was not less than a disruption 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."

It said, "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 petition said that act of Respondent 1 and Respondent 2 "is illegal and unconstitutional and also against the canons of law because the appointment on highest post of judiciary has been awarded to a person who is guilty of committing judicial impropriety and judicial misconduct".

The plea also sought quashing of the order of appointment of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the Chief Justice of India with effect from October 3.