Chief Justice of India, Sharad Arvind Bobde on Wednesday sent a letter to the Central government recommending the appointment of Justice NV Ramana as his successor. If appointed, the senior most Supreme Court Judge will take over when the present CJI retires on April 23.
Justice N V Ramana, who is poised to become the 48th Chief Justice of India, is set to retire on August 26, 2022. He had previously been the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and the acting Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. Born in Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district, he had practiced in the state High Court as well as the Supreme Court for several years.
Justice Ramana was enrolled as an advocate on February 10, 1983. He was appointed as a permanent Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on June 27, 2000 and functioned as acting Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court from March 10, 2013 to May 20, 2013. He was elevated as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court on September 2, 2013 and was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court on February 17, 2014. He has specialised in Constitutional, Criminal, Service and Inter-State River laws and had also been associated with several government organisations as a counsel.
Over the years, Justice Ramana has been a part of several landmark judgments. He was part of the Bench that expounded on the value of a woman’s work at home earlier this year. He had also been a part of the Bench that constituted a three-member committee to look into demand for allowing 4G mobile internet in Jammu and Kashmir as well as asking the J&K administration to review all orders pertaining to the imposition of curbs on telecom and internet services and put them in public domain.
The CJI-candidate had also seen his fair share of controversy, after YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh wrote to the CJI alleging that the judge and his relatives were linked to the Amaravati land scam case. Justice Ramana had however dismissed the allegations, contending that judges had become “soft targets” for criticism and gossipmongers. More recently, the AP government had reportedly urged the Supreme Court to lift the stay imposed by the state High Court on the probe. Justice Ramana’s nomination also means that the allegations have been categorically dismissed by the CJI
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