SC dismisses plea against appointment of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as Chief Justice of India, says petition 'devoid of merits'

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea challenging the appointment of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the next Chief Justice of India. “We are of the view that it is not the stage to interfere (with the appointment),” Chief Justice Dipak Misra said. According to Bar and Bench, the apex court said that the petition against Gogoi’s appointment was “devoid of merits”. Prior to the ruling, the bench comprising Misra, and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud asked petitioner advocate RP Luthra to file the mentioning memo before the court master. In their plea, Luthra along with petitioner advocate Satyaveer Sharma said they are seeking adjudication of the question of law for which they are relying on the contents of the press conference of 12 January, called by four senior judges (Justices J Chelameswar (since retired), Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph) of the apex court. [caption id=“attachment_4885481” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Justice Ranjan Gogoi. PTI[/caption] The plea said the petitioners were also relying on an undated letter addressed to Chief Justice of India and circulated by the four apex court judges. “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 plea said. It said that “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 the highest post of the 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 3 October. On September 3, the president has appointed Justice Gogoi as the 46th Chief Justice of India. He will take oath on 3 October after incumbent Chief Justice Dipak Misra retires. Justice Gogoi will be the first Chief Justice of India from Assam. The warrant of appointment of Justice Gogoi as Chief Justice had come in less than 10 days after Chief Justice Dipak Misra recommended his name as a successor. Justice Gogoi would have a tenure as Chief Justice of India of about 13 months till his retirement on 17 November, 2019. With inputs from PTI