CJI SA Bobde recommends Justice NV Ramana as his successor

Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde has recommended Justice NV Ramana's name as his successor after he retires next month. CJI Bobde is set to retire on 23 April.

In a letter to the Law Ministry, CJI SA Bobde recommended Justice Ramana as his successor.

The Centre had last week asked him to recommend his successor. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had reportedly sent a letter to Justice Bobde, seeking his recommendation, as is the practice under the Memorandum of Procedure for Appointment of Chief Justice of India.

According to the protocol for the appointment of members of the higher judiciary, the senior-most judge after the CJI is entitled to hold this constitutional office. He should also be "considered fit to hold the office".

But the procedure requires the law minister to seek the recommendation of the outgoing CJI "at the appropriate time" for appointing the next Chief Justice of India.

The recommendation letter has to come around a month before the vacancy arises. On appointment, Justice NV Ramana will be the 48th Chief Justice of India and he will have a long tenure as CJI for over 16 months.

All you need to know about Justice Ramana

Justice NV Ramana is the most senior judge in the apex court after CJI Bobde.

Born on 27 August, 1957, Justice Ramana has tenure till 26 August, 2022.

Justice Ramana is from an agricultural family in Andhra Pradesh. He was appointed as a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in June 2000.

He has served as the Chief Justice of the Delhi HC before being elevated to the Supreme Court in February 2014.

The judge was part of a bench that ruled that suspension of the Internet in Jammu and Kashmir should be reviewed immediately. He was also part of the panel of judges, which held that the Chief Justice's office comes under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

As the seniormost SC judge, Ramana is the current Chairperson of NALSA. He also pointed out the work done by the Legal Aid Services Authorities during the national-level lockdown, adding that "as a roadmap for the future, the Legal Services Authorities are focused on developing an accessible mechanism to redress the violation of rights and empowering the people through legal services and legal awareness".

CJI Bobde was sworn in as the 47th Chief Justice of India in November 2019, succeeding Justice (retired) Ranjan Gogoi. Justice Bobde has been part of several key cases, including the five-judge constitution bench that passed the historic verdict that cleared the way for the construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.