New Delhi: Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde is all set to be the next Chief Justice of India (CJI) as incumbent Ranjan Gogoi on Friday recommended his name, by writing a letter of appointment, as the next CJI. As per tradition, the sitting CJI has to write and recommend his immediate successor.
Justice Bobde, who is the second senior-most judge of the SC, will be the 47th CJI. He is also a part of the five-judge Constitution bench, headed by the CJI, that on Wednesday concluded day-to-day hearings in the Ayodhya land dispute case, the verdict of which is expected to come by November 17, the day CJI will remit office.
Besides CJI and Justice Bobde, other members of the bench are Justices SA Nazeer, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan.
Justice Gogoi succeeded Dipak Misra, who retired last October, as the Chief Justice of India. In January that year, he was one of the four SC judges to have taken part in an unprecedented press conference against then-CJI Misra. The other three judges were Justices Chelameswar (then second senior-most SC judge), Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Kurien Joseph, all of whom are now retired.
Earlier this year, CJI Gogoi was accused of sexual harassment by the wife of a former SC staffer. However, after an in-house inquiry by a panel of SC judges, he was given a clean chit.
The inquiry, however, was deemed as a sham by many, including the woman herself.