Justice N V Ramana appointed Chief Justice of India
07 Apr 2021
President Ramnath Kovind has appointed Justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana of the Supreme Court as the new Chief Justice of India, a notification issued by the Department of Justice, ministry of law and justice said on Monday.
The Warrant of Appointment and a copy of the Notification of Appointment have been handed over to Justice N V Ramana. He will take over as the 48th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India on 24 April 2021, after the current CJI SA Bobde demits office on 23 April.
Justice Ramana will have a tenure of around 16 months.
He is first-generation lawyer, having agricultural background, and hails from Ponnavaram Village of Krishna District in Andhra Pradesh. He is an avid reader and literature enthusiast. He is passionate about Carnatic music.
He was called to the Bar on 10 February 1983. He practiced in High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Central and Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunals, and the Supreme Court of India. He has specialised in Constitutional, Civil, Labour, Service and Election matters. He has also practiced before Inter-State River Tribunals.
During his practice years, he was a panel counsel for various government organisations and as Additional Standing Counsel for Railways in the Central Administrative Tribunal at Hyderabad before rendering services as Additional Advocate General of Andhra Pradesh.
Justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana served as puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of India from 17 February 2014. He served as chairman, Supreme Court Legal Services Committee from 7 March 2019 to 26 November 2019. He has also served as the executive cChairman of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) since 27 November 2019.
He was initially appointed as a permanent judge of Andhra Pradesh High Court on 27 June 2000. He also functioned as Acting Chief Justice of the high court from 10 March 2013 to 20 May 2013.
Current CJI SA Bobde had on 24 March recommended Justice NV Ramana as his successor after an in-house inquiry of the Supreme Court dismissed Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s allegation that the senior-most judge attempted to destabilise his government.
As per convention the incumbent CJI recommends the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as his successor. Only twice, it was not followed – first when Justice AN Ray was appointed CJI on 25 April 1973 superseding three senior-most judges and second time when Justice MH Beg was appointed the CJI on 29 January 1977 superseding Justice HR Khanna.