Justice Lalit will succeed CJ NV Ramana

By Our Special Correspondent

Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Thursday initiated the process of appointing Justice Uday Umesh Lalit's successor to the Centre, as per tradition. The CJI personally handed over a copy of his recommendation letter to Justice Lalit, who was next in seniority to Justice Ramana.

Justice Lalit, who was appointed as the head of the judiciary on August 27, will have a tenure of less than three months as the Chief Justice of India.

He will retire on November 8 this year. Justice Ramana, the 48th Chief Justice of India, who took over from SA Bobde as the head of the Judiciary on April 24, 2021, will retire on August 26 after tenure of 16 months.

Supreme Court judges retire at the age of 65. "The Hon'ble Chief Justice of India Shri Justice NV Ramana today recommended the name of Hon'ble Justice Uday Umesh Lalit as his successor to the Hon'ble Minister of Justice and Law," a statement said.

The CJI Secretariat received a communication dated August 3 from Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju requesting him to recommend the name of his successor.

As per the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) governing the process of appointment of judges in the apex judiciary, after receiving a communication from the Law Ministry, the outgoing CJI will start the process of naming a successor.

The MoP said the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court would be considered a suitable person for the post of CJI and the views of the outgoing head of the judiciary would have to be sought "in due course".