President on Tuesday formally appointed Supreme Court judge, Justice NV Ramana, as the next CJI.

The current and 47th chief justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde, formerly the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh who took the office on 18 November 2019 is all set to retire on the 23rd of April 2021.

According to the memorandum of procedure for appointment of judges, the senior-most judge of the supreme court who's deemed fit to hold the office is appointed. It was clear that it would be NV Ramana as he fit the criteria.

But doubts arose about his appointment due to the formal complaint made against him by the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh YS Jagan Mohan Reddy who accused the senior-most judge of influencing the state high court and stalling investigation of the Amravati land scam case in which the judge's daughters were also being probed. The exact words used by Jagan in the letter to the CJI were "The Andhra Pradesh court is being used to destabilize and topple my democratically elected government".

All speculations regarding nominations of the next Chief Justice were ended on Wednesday 24th March when he designated the second most senior judge NV Ramana as his successor. CJI Bobde was requested by the law ministry to designate his successor. CJI Bobde sent his letter to the union law ministry on Wednesday, exactly one month prior to his retirement.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday 6th April 2021 formally appointed Supreme Court judge, Justice NV Ramana, as the next Chief Justice of India (CJI). Justice Ramana will assume charge as the 48th CJI on April 24, a day after the retirement of incumbent CJI Sharad Arvind Bobde.

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