Appointment of Chief Justice India

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

• Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, kickstarting the process of appointment of the next Chief Justice of India.
• Besides the CJI, the collegium includes Justices U U Lalit, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abdul Nazeer.
• As per the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), the document governing the process of appointment of judges and appointment of the CJI, the Law Minister asks the outgoing Chief Justice of India to recommend the next CJI.
• the CJI should be “the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court considered fit to hold the office.” 
• Although the MoP says that the CJI’s views must be sought “at the appropriate time” and does not specify a timeline for the process.
• Justice Lalit, who is the seniormost judge of the Supreme Court is next in line to be appointed the CJI. 

Constitution on appointment of CJI

• The Constitution of India does not have any specific provision for criteria and procedure for appointing the CJI.
• Article 124(1) and the 2008 amendment of the Indian Constitution states that there shall be a Supreme Court of India consisting of a Chief Justice of India and no. of judges as prescribed by Parliament.
• Initially, the prescribed no. of judges was 7 excluding CJI. Now the no. is 34 judges including the CJI.
• The closest mention is in Article 126. It deals with the appointment of an acting CJI.