India Today – October 08, 2018

42 INDIA TODAY OCTOBER 8, 2018

THE ‘RADIANT LEAVES OF MEMORIES’ FELL.

Despitethegentlepoetryofthetitle,excitement

chargedthebalmyeveningofSeptember15as

Shanti Gogoi, 84, resplendent in a white and

goldmekhela-chadar,releasedherautobiogra-

phy—Huworonit Rongin Paatin Assamese—at

theGardenTreatHotelinDibrugarh,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 Jus-

tice Gogoi is likely to become a judge with

a diference. Who can forget January 12,

when he, along with three of the senior-

most judges of the apex court, staged an

unprecedented press conference to protest

the inner workings of the Sup reme Court?

Nor can anyone deny the apprehension that

gripped the nation after the press confer-

ence: will he, won’t he, become the next

CJI? The question is: with the 64-year-old

THE BIG STORY | CJI

Overcoming all apprehensions,

Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi is all

set to take charge. But will the

Supreme Court remain the same?

By Damayanti Datta and Kaushik Deka

COMMANDING

PRESENCE

CJI Ranjan

Gogoi at a

Supreme Court

function

T

A JUDGE

WITH A

DIFFERENCE