Ranjan Gogoi

Ranjan Gogoi is a former Chief Justice of India and currently a nominated Member of the Rajya Sabha. He was appointed the 46th Chief Justice of India on October 3, 2018, and served until November 17, 2019. He succeeds Justice Dipak Misra who retired on October 1, 2018. He was the first Chief Justice from Northern India. In 2020, he became the first former Chief Justice to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha by President Ram Nath Kovind.

He was born on November 18, 1954, in Dibrugarh, Assam in the Ahom dynasty. His family has a political background and his grandmother, Padma Kumari Gohain, was one of the first female MLAs in Assam cabinet. His father, Kesab Chandra Gogoi, served as the Chief Minister of Assam in 1982 for two months. His mother, Shanti Priya Gogoi was a social activist and the founder of the NGO named SEWA in 2000. Gogoi holds a bachelor degree in History from St. Stephens College, Delhi and later completed his Law degree from University of Delhi. He began his legal career at the Gauhati High Court in 1978 under advocate JP Bhattacharjee. He began to practise independently in 1991 and became a senior counsel in 1999 at the court. He became a permanent judge of the Gauhati High Court in 2001. After a decade-long career he became the permanent Judge of Punjab & Haranaya High Court in 2010 and after a year he was promoted to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court from 2011 to 2012. He was elevated to the Supreme Court in April 2012 and delivered over 600 judgements during his tenure. In October 2018, he became the 46th Chief Justice of India, serving until November 2019.

Some of the important judgments as a Chief justice include updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam, which is an effort aimed at identifying Indian citizens and addressing issues of illegal immigration in the state. In the Soumya Murder case, he led a bench that carefully reviewed the evidence and reduced the sentence from death penalty to life imprisonment, which sparked on the interpretation of intent in criminal cases. He established special courts for MLAs and MPs, ensuring quicker trials for legislators facing criminal charges. Another important judgment was when he struck down the Uttar Pradesh Government's law that allowed former Chief Ministers to retain government bungalows, on the grounds of equality before the law and that public accountability needs to be maintained. He gave the historic Ayodhya verdict on 9 November 2019, resolving the decades-long dispute. The court awarded the disputed 2.77-acre land to Hindus for constructing a Ram Temple and allocated five acres to Muslims for a mosque at a prominent location in Ayodhya.

After his retirement, Gogoi was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by President Ram Nath Kovind in March 2020, becoming the first Chief Justice of India to be directly nominated to the Upper House. As a Member of Parliament, he has served on the Parliamentary Standing Committees for External Affairs and Communications and Information Technology. He has also authored an autobiography titled Justice for the Judge.

BOOM debunked misinformation about former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. BOOM fact-checked reports from Patrika, TV9 Bharatvarsh, and One India claiming that Ranjan Gogoi had tested positive for COVID-19. BOOM found these claims to be false. In a telephonic conversation with BOOM, Gogoi denied the reports, stating, "No, it’s not true, it’s false." His denial was also confirmed by legal news portal Bar & Bench.

BOOM fact-checked a quote attributed to Gogoi, claiming he praised Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar’s courteous behaviour in a post on X (formerly Twitter). The quote, which read, “Despite being governor, he (Dhankar) is bowing while interacting with Mamata Banerjee. Because it is his value and he is courteous. Congress leaders make fun of his courteousness,” was widely circulated after a video of Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee mimicking Dhankar went viral. News agency PTI first reported the statement on December 27, 2023, and later retracted it with an apology. However, several outlets, including The Times of India, Deccan Herald, and The Week, attributed the quote to Gogoi and have yet to take down their reports. BOOM found that the quote originated from an impersonation account and not from Gogoi himself. BOOM contacted Ranjan Gogoi, who clarified, “The news item circulated by PTI involving me, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and MP Sri Kalyan Banerjee is false. I am not on social media and do not have a Twitter account. Any tweet in the above matter attributed to me is false and misleading.”