Justice Ranjan Gogoi, one of the judges on the Bench meant to hear a petition filed by a lawyers’ group against the proposed elevation of Justice J.S. Khehar as Chief Justice of India, recused himself from the case on Friday.
Justice Gogoi, who was on the Bench with Justice L. Nageswara Rao, preferred to opt himself out from hearing the plea filed by the National Lawyers’ Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms.
“List before a Bench of which one of us [Ranjan Gogoi] is not a member,” the Bench said.
In its petition, the lawyers’ organisation said that instead of Justice Khehar, Justice J. Chelameshwar, who is now the fourth senior-most judge, should be elevated as he had given a dissenting view when the National Judicial Appointments Commission was struck down by a five-judge Constitution Bench led by Justice Khehar.
