Justice SA Bobde set to become 47th Chief Justice of India

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]HE incumbent Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi has written to the Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, recommending the name of the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court Justice SA Bobde to be his successor.

CJI Gogoi is set to demit the office on November 17, 2019.

Earlier, the Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, in consonance with existing Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) governing the method to be followed while forwarding the name of next CJI to the President of India, had written to CJI Gogoi seeking his recommendation.

The Department of Justice under the Union Ministry of Law and Justice is likely to notify the appointment of Justice Bobde as the next Chief Justice of India in a couple of days. Before that file will go to the President of India to get the appointment of warrant signed off, routed through Prime Minister.

Justice Bobde hails from Nagpur, Maharashtra. He enrolled on the Roll of the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1978.  He practiced law at the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court with appearances at Bombay before the Principal Seat and before the Supreme Court of India for over 21 years.

He was designated as Senior Advocate in 1998 and elevated to the Bench of the Bombay High Court on March, 29 2000, as Additional Judge. He was appointed as the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on October 16, 2012. From there, he was elevated to the apex court on April 12, 2013.

Justice Bobde will have tenure as the Chief Justice of India for more than a year, and will be demitting the office on April 23, 2021. He is one the judges on five-judge bench, which recently concluded the hearing in Ayodhya matter. He was also the part of the nine-judge Constitution bench which had held right to privacy as the fundamental right (Puttawamy case).

Image Courtesy: The Hindu