New Delhi: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit has recommended the named Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud as his successor for the coveted post on Tuesday and handed over the letter. With the elevation recommended, Justice DY Chandrachud is all set to become the 50th Chief Justice of India. He will remain in office till November 10, 2024.
CJI Lalit made the official announcement after he requested all judges to assemble in the Judges' lounge today. Justice Lalit, sworn in as the 49th Chief Justice of India on August 27, 2022, will retire on November 8.
The development comes after Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had written a letter to Justice UU Lalit to nominate his successor who would take over with effect from November 9, 2022.
Earlier, the bid to fill up the remaining four vacancies of judges in the Supreme Court remained unfinished, as CJI-led five-member collegium “discharged” the agenda due to the objections by senior-most judge Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice S A Nazeer on seeking written consent to the proposal for the appointment.
The top court currently has 29 judges, including three women judges, against the sanctioned strength of 34.
Tradition has it that outgoing CJIs leave the issue of appointment of judges through collegium deliberations to the successor the day their remaining tenure in the office comes down to a month.
In an unprecedented development, the Supreme Court Collegium made public the names of the two judges on the panel who objected to the method of "circulation" adopted for eliciting the views of its members on the appointment of judges to the apex court.
(With agencies' input)