Justice Ranjan Gogoi maintains the precedent of retiring in style with big verdicts

New Delhi, Nov 04: The tradition continues in the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi too will sign out in style. Justice Gogoi has kept the best for the last and will pronounce the Ayodhya verdict, probably one of India's most important cases before he retires on November 17.

In addition to this case, he would also deliver important judgments in the review petitions filed in both the Sabarimala and Rafale case. He is also presiding over a Bench that would deliver the verdict in the contempt case against Rahul Gandhi filed by BJP leader, Meenakshi Lekhi.

The last few days in officer for the Justice Dipak Misra as CJI too were extremely hectic. The last month in office was an eventful one. The Bench headed by Justice Misra upheld the validity of Aadhaar. Further, Section 377 was decriminalised Article 377. Further Section 497 which criminalised adultery was struck down.

Further, the Justice Misra led Bench also ruled that candidates contesting elections cannot be barred on the ground that a charge sheet has been filed against them. Another case that Justice Misra dealt with was the Bhima Koregaon case in which he held that the same would not be referred to a Special Investigation Team.

A Bench headed by Justice Misra also cleared the decks for the Ayodhya hearing, where it was held that Mosque was not integral to the practice of Islam.

In his final month, Justice J S Khehar who retired as CJI in 2017 too delivered some important verdicts. He headed a Bench that delivered a landmark verdict in which it was held that privacy was a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution.

Prior to Justice Khehar, Justice T S Thakur in his final month delivered a verdict in which he held that the unfettered re-promulgation of ordinances is not permissible by the Constitution. Justice H L Dattu as Chief Justice of India in his final month delivered only two verdicts. In one of them, he allowed the Kerala Government to ban online lotteries. The other one was delivered by a Constitution Bench headed by Justice Dattu, which decided on the issue relating to the remission of sentences of those involved in the assassination of the former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi.