Justice NV Ramana appointed next Chief Justice of India

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 6

President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Justice NV Ramana as the next Chief Justice of India.

A notification with regard to the warrant of appointment to this effect was issued on Tuesday.

Justice Ramana will take oath as the 48th CJI on April 24 and will have a tenure of around 16 months. 

He will replace the current CJI SA Bobde, who is due to demit office on April 23.

Justice Ramana - who was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court on February 17, 2014 - will retire on August 26, 2022.

A month before his retirement on April 23, CJI SA Bobde had on March 24 recommended Justice NV Ramana as his successor after an in-house inquiry of the Supreme Court dismissed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s allegation that the senior-most judge attempted to destabilise his government.

There has been a convention of CJI recommending the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as his successor. Only twice, it was not followed – first when Justice AN Ray was appointed CJI on April 25, 1973 superseding three senior-most judges and second time when Justice MH Beg was appointed the CJI on January 29, 1977 superseding Justice HR Khanna.

Born in an agricultural family on August 27, 1957 at Ponnavaram village, Krishna district, Justice Ramana holds BSc and BL degrees.

He got enrolled as an advocate on February 10, 1983 and practised in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Central and Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunals and the Supreme Court in civil, criminal, constitutional, labour, service and election matters.

He specialises in constitutional, criminal, service and inter-state river laws and has functioned as panel counsel for various government organisations and also as additional standing counsel for central government and standing counsel for railways in the Central Administrative Tribunal at Hyderabad. He was also the Additional Advocate General of Andhra Pradesh.

He was appointed a Permanent Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on June 27, 2000 and also functioned as its Acting Chief Justice from March 10, 2013 to May 20, 2013.

Appointed as the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court on September 2, 2013, Justice Ramana was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on February 17, 2014.

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