JUDGMENT DAY
Overcoming all apprehensions, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi is all set to take charge. But will the Supreme Court remain the same?
What to expect as Ranjan Gogoi gets set to take charge of the Supreme Court
TTHE ‘RADIANT LEAVES OF MEMORIES’ FELL. Despite the gentle poetry of the title, excitement charged the balmy evening of September 15 as Shanti Gogoi, 84, resplendent in a white and gold mekhela-chadar, released her autobiography—Huworonit Rongin Paat in Assamese—at the Garden Treat Hotel in Dibrugarh, Assam. Across the room, people nudged each other. “There he is,” they whispered. A man, who sat with formidable composure in the front row. “He has come all the way for his mother’s book launch”; “Just two days after becoming the Chief Justice of India”; “Northeast’s first”. The mother looked on proudly at the son she called “His Lordship”, in jest and in earnest. The second of her five children, Ranjan Gogoi, certainly added a colourful leaf in her book of life.
Despite the enormous power they wield, judges do not lead colourful lives. They do their work quietly, away from the limelight, and speak only through their judgments. Yet, on October 3, when he takes charge as the 46th chief of the “world’s most powerful court”, Chief Justice Gogoi is likely to become a judge with a difference. Who can forget January 12, when he, along with three of the seniormost judges of the apex court, staged an unprecedented press conference to protest the inner workings of the Supreme Court? Nor can anyone deny the apprehension that gripped the nation after the press conference: will he, won’t he, become the next CJI? The question is: with the 64-year-old