President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday signed off on the appointment of Justice N.V. Ramana as the next Chief Justice of India (CJI). He will be the 48th CJI and will take oath on April 24.
He was appointed to the Supreme Court on February 17, 2014.
Last month, Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, who is due to retire on April 23, had recommended Justice Ramana as his successor.
According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice, in the exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution, the President is pleased to appoint Justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana, Judge of the Supreme Court, to be Chief Justice of India with effect from April 24.
Justice Ramana will have a tenure as CJI with over 16 months at the helm before he retires on August 26, 2022.
Justice Ramana will be the second CJI from Andhra Pradesh; Justice K Subba Rao was the ninth Chief Justice of India from 1966-67.
Born on 27, 1957, in an agricultural family in Andhra Pradesh’s district, Justice Ramana will be the country's top judge for a year and four months, till August 26, 2022.
Having a four-decade -long-career, Justice Ramana "has practised in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, central and Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunals and the Supreme Court of India in civil, criminal, constitutional, labour, service and election matters. He has specialised in constitutional, criminal, service and inter-state river laws," as per his profile on the official website of the Supreme Court.
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On June 27, 2000, Justice Ramana was appointed as a Permanent Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. He functioned as acting Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court from March 10, 2013, to May 20, 2013," it further reads. Later, in 2013, he was promoted as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court and as a judge in the top court in 2014.
Justice Ramana, 63, was a sitting member of a bench that ruled that suspension of the Internet in Jammu and Kashmir should be reviewed immediately and also a bench that held Chief Justice's office comes under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.