Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde recommended to the Law Ministry the appointment of senior-most Supreme Court judge Justice NV Ramana as his successor.

Justice Ramana was appointed to the Supreme Court on 17 February, 2014 and is expected to take over as CJI on 24 April, when incumbent Bobde retires.

Justice Ramana will have a tenure of over 16 months, before retiring on 26 August, 2022, making it the longest tenure to be served by a CJI in nearly a decade. Justice SH Kapadia was the last judge to have a longer tenure, lasting from May 2010 to September 2012. He will also be the first Andhra Pradesh HC judge to serve at the top post.

Born on 27 August, 1957 into an agricultural family in Andhra Pradesh‘s Ponnavaram village, he enrolled as an advocate on 10 February, 1983. He has practiced in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Central and Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunals and the Supreme Court in Civil, Criminal, Constitutional, Labour, Service and Election matters. He has specialised in constitutional, criminal, service and inter-state river laws. He has also functioned as Additional Advocate General of Andhra Pradesh.

Ramana was appointed as a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in June 2000. He served as Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court before being elevated to the Supreme Court.

He was part of a bench that ruled that suspension of internet in Jammu and Kashmir should be reviewed immediately. He was also among the judges who held during a hearing that the Chief Justice’s office comes under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

As the seniormost SC judge, Ramana is the current chairperson of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).