CJI SA Bobde recommends Justice NV Ramana as his successor
The Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde, has recommended Justice NV Ramana as his successor, reports said on Wednesday. If confirmed, Justice Ramana will become the 48th Chief Justice of India. CJI Bobde is all set to retire on April 23 and was asked by the government last week to suggest a name. Justice Ramana is the second-most senior judge of the Supreme Court.
Justice Ramana was born on August 27, 1957, to an agricultural family in Andhra Pradesh. He enrolled himself as an advocate in the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 1983. In 2000, he was appointed as a permanent judge in Andhra Pradesh HC. Before he was elevated to the apex court in February 2014, he served as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court.
Justice Ramana was a member of the SC bench that had commented in January 2020 that the internet restrictions imposed in J&K needed immediate review. He had quoted Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities in the verdict. He also signed the verdict which held that the Chief Justice's office comes under the jurisdiction of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
However, Justice Ramana's time in SC wasn't without controversies. In October, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Reddy had written to CJI Bobde, alleging that his junior was interfering in the Andhra HC. Separately, in 2019, after sexual harassment allegations were leveled against ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Ramana recused himself from the in-house panel, formed to probe the charges. The woman had objected to his appointment.
With his retirement due on August 26, 2022, Justice Ramana will have the longest tenure as CJI in almost a decade. The last CJI to have a considerably long tenure was late Justice SH Kapadia. He remained the CJI from May 2010 to September 2012.
The Memorandum of Procedure, overlooking the appointment of members of the higher judiciary, dictates that the "appointment to the office of the Chief Justice of India should be of the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court considered fit to hold the office." CJI Bobde had taken the office in November 2019, succeeding Gogoi, who had signed the historic Ayodhya judgment.
