Government seeks Lalit's recommendation on next and 50th CJI of India

The Ministry of Law and Justice on October 7, 2022 sought CJI of India U.U. Lalit's recommendation for appointment of his successor.

"As per the MoP [Memorandum of Procedure] on appointment of jurist of India and Supreme Court Judges, today the Hon’ble Minister of Law and Justice sent a letter to the Hon’ble jurist of India for sending his recommendations for appointment of his successor," the Ministry tweeted.

The letter kick-starts the appointment process for the 50th magistrate of India.

Justice D.Y. Chandrachud is next in line to be magistrate of India in accordance with the seniority norm.

The process of appointment, per the 'Memorandum of Procedure of Appointment of Supreme Court Judges', begins with the Union Law Minister seeking the advice of the outgoing CJI about the subsequent appointment.

The Minister must seek the CJI's recommendation "at the suitable time". The Memorandum doesn't elaborate or specify a timeline.

Usually the Law Minister sends his request and also the outgoing CJI makes his recommendation with a month to spare before his retirement. jurist Lalit is ready to retire on November 8.

Chief Justice Lalit has hardly 15 working days left before November 8, which may be a holiday. His last working day would effectively be November 7. The Diwali holidays would also intervene between day to October 29.

The court is scheduled to re-open on October 10 after the continued Dussehra holidays.

The appointment process for the following magistrate of India has begun at a time when four names are into consideration of the collegium for appointment as Supreme Court judges. Usually, no new recommendations for judicial appointments are made when the appointment process for the following CJI is on.

A crucial collegium meeting scheduled on September 30 to finalise the four names couldn't be held thanks to the very fact that one among the collegium judges had a significant board of cases and sat till 9.15 p.m.

Chief Justice Lalit had written to the collegium members to form the advice of the four names through circulation, but two of the collegium judges had objected, saying the problem had to be deliberated in the flesh and not through circulation.

The fate of the four recommendations now lies in limbo.

The Lalit Collegium had however, at an earlier date, successfully recommended Bombay court jurist Dipankar Datta as Supreme Court judge. This file is pending with the govt..

The Supreme Court has currently five judicial vacancies. the following retirement is that of Justice Hemant Gupta on October 16.