About:
- CJI Lalit retires on November 8. The second seniormost judge on the Bench is Justice D Y Chandrachud. Upon recommendation by CJI Lalit and appointment by the President, Justice Chandrachud will be CJI for a little more than two years until November 10, 2024.
The Memorandum of Procedure (MoP)
- The MoP is the playbook agreed upon by the government and the judiciary on the appointment of judges. It is a crucial document because the Collegium system of appointing judges is a judicial innovation that is not mandated through legislation or text of the Constitution.
- The MoP has evolved as the standard based on three decisions of the Supreme Court, known as the First Judges Case (1981), Second Judges Case (1993) and the Third Judges Case (1998). These three judgments form the basis of a peer selection process for the appointment of judges.
- The MoP was first drawn up in 1999. It was re-negotiated in 2016 following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC)
- MoP says that the “Union Minister of Law, Justice…would, at the appropriate time, seek the recommendation of the outgoing Chief Justice of India for the appointment of the next Chief Justice of India”.
- Although the MoP mentions an “appropriate time”, the process is by convention begun a month before the date of retirement of the incumbent CJI.
