President Draupadi Murmu appointed Justice
Sanjiv Khanna as the 51st Chief Justice of
India (CJI).
By convention, the senior most judge of the
SC (based on years of experience as a judge in
the apex court) becomes the CJI. This process was put down in the
‘Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for
the appointment of Supreme Court Judges’
in 1999.
The Process set by the MoP:
The appointment process begins with
the Union Law Minister seeking the
recommendation of the outgoing CJI for
the appointment of the next Chief Justice.
By convention, the “appropriate time” for
this process to begin is a month before
the date of retirement of the incumbent
CJI.
After receipt of the recommendation
of the CJI, the Minister will put up the
recommendation to the Prime Minister
who will advise the President in the
matter of appointment.
Though the final word on appointing the
next CJI technically lies with the Centre, by
convention the Centre tends to appoint
whoever the presiding CJI recommends
as her successor.
Since all SC judges have to retire at the age
of 65, the length of a CJI’s tenure depends
on how old they are at the time of their
predecessor’s retirement.