Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: August 3, 2022 at 19:49 IST
The five-judge collegium of the Supreme Court, headed over by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, met on Tuesday to kickstart the appointment of the next CJI before his retirement on August 26.
The collegium included Justices U U Lalit, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, and Abdul Nazeer in addition to the CJI.
It is known that the collegium did discuss some names for appointments to the SC, but some judges believe it would be prudent to wait until the new CJI takes office.
The Law Minister asks the departing Chief Justice of India to recommend the next CJI in accordance with the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), the document governing the appointment of judges and the appointment of the CJI.
According to the MoP, the CJI must be “the senior-most Supreme Court judge considered fit to hold the office.” Although the MoP does not specify a timeline for the process and states that the CJI’s views must be sought “at the appropriate time,” the process often begins a month before the incumbent CJI retires.
In addition, the Supreme Court Public Relations Officer said on Tuesday that “the office of the Hon’ble Chief Justice has not received any note or letter regarding recommendation of (the) successor.”
The Supreme Court’s senior judge, Justice Lalit, is the next in line to be appointed CJI. He is expected to serve for three months before departing on November 8, 2022.
After Justice SM Sikri, who was appointed as a Supreme Court judge directly from the bar, Justice Lalit will be the second Chief Justice of India appointed directly from the bar after him. From January 1971 until April 1973, Justice Sikri served as CJI.
Justice Lalit, who was born in 1957, enrolled as an advocate before the Bombay High Court in 1983. He appeared in the 2G trial as the Special Public Prosecutor for the Central Bureau of Investigation before being appointed a judge of the SC in 2014.
With CJI Ramana’s retirement, the Supreme Court will only have 30 judges as against to the sanctioned strength of 34.