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Ranjan Gogoi Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More

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Caste: Tai Ahom
Wife: Rupanjali Gogoi
Age: 68 Years

Ranjan Gogoi

Bio/Wiki
ProfessionLaw Personnel (Chief Justice of India)
Famous ForBeing the 46th Chief Justice of India
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)in centimeters- 168 cm
in meters- 1.68 m
in feet inches- 5’ 6”
Eye ColourBlack
Hair ColourBlack
Personal Life
Date of Birth18 November 1954 (Thursday)
Age (as of 2022)68 Years
BirthplaceDibrugarh, Assam
Zodiac signScorpio
NationalityIndian
HometownGuwahati, Assam
School• Don Bosco High School, Guwahati, Assam
• Cotton University, Guwahati, Assam
College/University• St Stephen's College, Delhi
• Delhi University
Educational Qualification(s) [1]Deccan Herald• History (Hons) from the St Stephen's College, Delhi
• Bachelor of Laws from the Delhi University
Enrolled at Bar1978
ReligionNot Known
Caste/EthnicityTai Ahom [2]India Today
HobbiesWatching Football Matches, Playing Chess, Playing Cricket
Controversies• Gogoi was a part of the Supreme Court bench that set aside the death sentence awarded by a trial court to the accused in the "Soumya Murder and Rape Case". Several people including some judges of the Supreme Court criticized the judgement. [3]Deccan Herald

• In the first time in the history of the Supreme Court of India, a press conference was held by Gogoi and three other Supreme Court Judges. They questioned the working of the Supreme Court when Justice Arun Mishra was allocated the hearing of the case of the death of CBI Judge, B.H.Loya by the then Chief Justice of India, Dipak Mishra. Justice Mishra condemned the actions of the judges and said that the press conference was held to tarnish his image. [4]The Wire

• In April 2019, a 35-year-old former female employee of the Supreme Court of India made allegations of sexual harassment against Gogoi. In her complaint, she said that she was sexually harassed by Gogoi in his office on 10th and 11th October 2018, after which her employment was terminated on 21 December 2018. [5]India Today
Cover Letter of the Complainant who accused Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment

• On 11 May 2023, a defamation case was filed against him by a Guwahati-based social worker named Aabhijeet Sharma. While filing a Rs. 1 crore defamation suit against Ranjan Gogoi at the Kamrup (Metro) district and civil judge court in Guwahati, the petitioner claimed that Gogoi’s autobiography titled ‘Justice for the Judge’ has offensive content in context of National Register of Citizens updating exercise and demanded a ban on the autobiography. According to Sharma, his name was wrongly mentioned in Gogoi's biography where he wrote NRC officials were attacked by locals including Aabhijeet Sharma. Gogoi wrote in his biography,

“At the local level, personal attacks on the SCNR (Hajela) and veiled attacks on the judges, particularly me, by local politicians and specifically by Aabhijeet Sharma, the president of Assam Public Works, left us (the Bench) convinced that orders should be passed to protect former state NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela from undue harassment and calculated harm. The Bench passed the order dated 18 October 2019 for his deputation on inter-cadre transfer to Madhya Pradesh, his home state.”

Sharma found this baseless, and in 2017, he alleged that Hajela was involved in a scam related to the NRC updating exercise, and Gogoi, who headed a Supreme Court bench, passed a suo moto contempt case against Sharma and asked him to tender an unconditional apology before the court. Sharma said,

“With adequate proof, I raised the concern over misappropriation of funds in the NRC exercise and the Auditor General of India found it correct. As a result, Hajela was removed from his post and transferred from Assam.”

According to Sharma, Gogoi wrote another lie in his biography when he wrote,

“Subsequent events like filing of FIRs against Hajela and other NRC officials; allegations of corruption and threats to order CBI probes besides enormous misinformation to the media and wide publicity thereof leave me convinced that the Bench was thoroughly justified in passing the rather unusual order for the inter-cadre transfer of Hajela by invoking Article 142 of the Constitution.” [6]Hindustan Times
Relationships & More
Marital StatusMarried
Family
Wife/SpouseRupanjali Gogoi
Ranjan Gogoi with his wife Rupanjali Gogoi
ChildrenSon- Raktim Gogoi (Advocate)
Daughter- Rashmi (Advocate)
ParentsFather- Kesab Chandra Gogoi (Former Chief Minister of Assam)
Mother- Shanti Gogoi
Ranjan Gogoi With His Mother
SiblingsBrother(s)- 2
• Anjan Gogoi (Elder; Retired Air Marshal from The Indian Air Force)
Ranjan Gogoi's Brother Anjan Kumar Gogoi
• Niranjan Gogoi (Younger; Doctor; lives in London)
Sister(s)- 2 (Younger; Names Not Known)
Style Quotient
Assets/Properties (as in 2018) [7]The Week• Bank Deposit: 6.5 lacs INR
• Fixed Deposit: 16 lacs INR
• LIC Policy: 5 lacs INR
• Residential Building: Inherited land in the village of Japorigog Mouza Beltola, Assam
Money Factor
Salary (as the Member of Rajya Sabha)Rs. 1 Lakh + Other allowances [8]rajyasabha.nic.in (as in 2020)

Ranjan Gogoi

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ranjan Gogoi

  • Ranjan Gogoi was the 46th Chief Justice of India. He retired on 17 November 2019, and he is credited to hear many popular cases including the 134 years long Ayodhya Land Dispute case.
  • His father, Keshab Chandra Gogoi was the Chief Minister of Assam for two months in 1982.
  • Before getting enrolled into a school, Ranjan and his brother Anjan did a toss to determine who would go to the Sainik School. Anjan won the toss and went to the Sainik School while Ranjan went to Don Bosco School.
  • His brother, in an interview, revealed that Ranjan cleared the UPSC exam but didn’t see his future in it and told his father that he wanted to study law.
  • In 1978, he was enrolled in the bar and started practising at the Gauhati High Court.
  • On 5 August 1998, he lost his father.
  • On 28th February 2001, he was appointed as a Permanent Judge of the Gauhati High Court.

    Ranjan Gogoi during his tenure as the permanent judge of Gauhati High Court

    Ranjan Gogoi during his tenure as the permanent judge of Gauhati High Court

  • On 9th September 2010, he was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
  • On 12 February 2011, he became the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

    Ranjan Gogoi during his tenure as the Chief Justice of the Punjab & Haryana High Court

    Ranjan Gogoi during his tenure as the Chief Justice of the Punjab & Haryana High Court

  • He was elevated to the Judge of the Supreme Court on 23 April 2012.
  • He has been involved in many high profile cases. He dismissed Reliance Communication’s appeal challenging the demand of the Gujarat Government seeking 13 Crores INR as property tax.
  • A bench led by Justice Gogoi also handled the case of JNU student Kanhaiya Kumar. He dismissed the petition; seeking a probe on the incidents of attack on Kanhaiya.
  • He presided the bench that passed the judgment to introduce new electoral reforms by ruling that no one can contest elections without making a full and honest disclosure about his/her assets, educational, and criminal antecedents.
  • He was also part of the bench that restricted ruling parties from publishing images of prominent persons or political leaders in government-funded advertisements.
  • He is known for his strict conduct in the court.
  • In January 2018, Gogoi with three other judges held an unprecedented press conference underlining the problems plaguing the Supreme Court. They accused the then Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra of not handling the case of the death of the CBI Judge B. H. Loya. Post the conference, Justice Misra condemned the press conference and accused the judges of tarnishing his image.

  • On 14 September 2018, he was sworn in as the Chief Justice of India by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind. He was appointed as the CJI till his retirement on 17 November 2019.

    Ranjan Gogoi with Ram Nath Kovind after taking oath as the 46th Chief Justice of India

    Ranjan Gogoi with Ram Nath Kovind after taking oath as the 46th Chief Justice of India

  • On 18 October 2019, Gogoi recommended SA Bobde‘s named as the 47th Chief Justice of India by sending a letter of recommendation to the Union Law Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad.

    Ranjan Gogoi with SA Bobde

    Ranjan Gogoi with SA Bobde

  • On 9 November 2019, CJI Ranjan Gogoi, along with 4 other Supreme Court judges, delivered the verdict in the 134 years long Ayodhya land dispute case.

    Ranjan Gogoi with the Supreme Court Bench that delivered the Ayodhya verdict

    Ranjan Gogoi with the Supreme Court Bench that delivered the Ayodhya verdict

  • On 16 March 2020, President Ram Nath Kovind, by exercising his powers conferred by sub-clause (a) of clause (1) of Article 80 of the Constitution of India, read with clause (3) of that article, nominated Ranjan Gogoi to the Rajya Sabha. Mr. Gogoi was retired from the post of the Chief Justice of India in November 2019.

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