CJI UU Lalit recommends Justice DY Chandrachud as his successor

Chief Justice of India UU Lalit on Tuesday recommended the name of Justice DY Chandrachud for the position of 50th CJI.

Justice Lalit, sworn in as the 49th Chief Justice of India on August 27, 2022, will retire on November 8 and has less than a month before he demits office.

Tradition has it that outgoing CJIs leave the issue of appointment of judges through collegium deliberations to the successor the day their remaining tenure in the office comes down to a month.

Besides appointing around 20 judges in different high courts, CJI Lalit-led collegium recently recommended elevation of Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court Justice Dipankar Datta as a judge of the apex court.

It also recommended the elevation of a few high court judges as chief justices (CJs), besides transferring some other CJs and judges.

However, his last ditch effort to recommend the names for filling up the remaining four vacancies in the top court ran into rough weather due to the objections raised by Justices Chandrachud and Nazeer over the method of seeking consent on the names through the circulation method.

The top court currently has 29 judges, including three women judges, against the sanctioned strength of 34.

(With inputs from agencies)