SC dismisses plea challenging appointment of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as next CJI

SC said the petition challenging the appointment of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as CJI was "devoid of merits".

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition challenging the appointment of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the next Chief Justice of India. The petition was filed by advocate RP Luthra seeking to quash Justice Gogoi's appointment.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said that the petition was "devoid of merits". "We are of the view that it is not the stage to interfere (with the appointment)," the SC bench said.

The petition against Justice Gogoi's appointment as the next CJI was filed by two lawyers RP Luthra and Satyaveer Sharma. In their plea, they had said they were seeking adjudication of the question of law 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 had said the petitioners were also relying on an undated letter addressed to the 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 had alleged.

The President had on September 3 appointed Justice Gogoi as the 46th Chief Justice of India. He will take oath on October 3 after 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 successor.

Justice Gogoi would have a tenure as Chief Justice of India of about 13 months till his retirement on November 17, 2019.