Centre asks Chief Justice UU Lalit to name his successor

In a tweet, the Ministry of Law and Justice said: “As per the MoP on appointment of Chief Justice of India and Supreme Court judges, today the Minister of Law and Justice sent a letter to the Chief Justice of India for sending his recommendations for appointment of his successor.”

Justice Lalit will retire on November 8 and as per convention Justice D.Y. Chandrachud is to be recommended to the post in order of seniority. He is likely to be named as the next CJI by Justice Lalit.

As per the convention, the government writes to the outgoing CJI and the CJI, in turn, recommends the name of the most senior judge as the successor, a month before retirement. After the name of the senior most judge is recommended, the incumbent CJI usually does not take decision on the recommendation for the appointment of new judges. The incumbent CJI usually leaves it for the new CJI.

Also, Chief Justice Lalit-led collegium may not be able to recommend any name to the Centre for filling up four vacant Supreme Court judges’ posts, as the deadlock over the proposal to recommend new judges continues. According to sources, two of the five-member apex court collegium have opposed the proposal to recommend four new judges, which includes an apex court lawyer, to the top court through a written note instead of a formal meeting.

The Chief Justice of India, who heads the collegium, had written to its four members — Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, S.K. Kaul, S. Abdul Nazeer, and K.M. Joseph — earlier this month seeking their consent for the elevation of Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha; Patna High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Karol; Manipur High Court Chief Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar; and senior advocate K.V. Viswanathan.

The apex court will reopen after Dussehra holidays on October 10. So far, the collegium headed by the CJI has recommended for the elevation of Bombay High Court Chief Justice Dipankar Dutta as judge of the apex court.