Going by the tradition of seniority, Justice Ranjan Gogoi is set to be the next Chief Justice of India, as his name has been recommended by CJI Dipak Misra to the government.

Leaving aside all speculation, CJI Dipak Misra has namedJustice Gogoi as his successor, as the Law Ministry had asked for the recommendation.

If the Union Law Ministry clears the name, which in all probability would clear, Justice Gogoi will be the next CJI. He will take charge on October 3 and will be the Chief Justice of India till November 17, 2019.

However, the speculation was more on the line of CJI’s recommendation – as Justice Ranjan Gogoi was among the four judges who, in January this year,went to press criticized CJIMisraof misusing his role of assigning cases as the Supreme Court's Master of the Roster.

The press conference by four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court for the first time had brought forward the concern in relation to the functioning of the apex court.

Accepting the press conference as highly unusual, they had raised their apprehension on selective assignment of very important cases to judges who were junior to them.

While the matter was to immediately do with the case on the mysterious death of Justice BH Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin fake encounter, this came as a surprise to everyone from government to the Bar Council and the civil society.

Justice Chelameswar, Justice Gogoi, Justice Lokur and Kurian Joseph were pressing on the impartiality of the judiciary and raised alarm that CJI Dipak Misra was not doing anything to remedy the situation.

Nevertheless, the recommendation of Justice Ranjan Gogoi’s name by the CJI as his successor puts the speculations behind as this maintains the traditionto endorse the next senior-most judge to the chair.