Big news is that Justice Dipak Misra of Odisha will be the next Chief Justice of India (CJI) as announced by incumbent CJI Justice Khehar. He will be the third CJI from Odisha after Justices Ranganath Misra and Gopal Ballabh Patnaik.
Justice Deepak Misra incidentally is the nephew (elder brother’s son) of Justice Ranganath Misra. He will serve as the boss of the apex court for a long period of a little above fourteen months.
Odisha people have started basking in the glory Justice Deepak Misra has earned with hard work and dedication. God give him perpetual joy and pride!
Justice Dipak Misra was enrolled at the Orissa High Court Bar on February 14, 1977. After serving at the Service Tribunal for some time, he was elevated as an Additional Judge of the High Court in 1996. He was transferred the following year to the Madhya Pradesh High Court as a Permanent Judge on December 19, 1997. In 2009 December, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Patna High Court and served there until May 2010 when he was appointed Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court until his elevation to the Supreme Court on October 10, 2011.
Justice Misra became a highly rated and respected judge for passing such a judgement as the ‘Own Motion Vs State’ case, requiring Delhi Police to upload FIRs on their website within 24 hours of the FIRs being lodged in order to enable the accused to file appropriate applications before the court for redressal of their grievances. Similarly, on reservation in the promotion matter, he and Justice Dalveer Bhandari upheld the Allahabad High Court judgement that reservation in promotions can be provided only if there are sufficient data and evidence to justify the need. The Bench rejected the Uttar Pradesh Government’s decision to provide reservation in promotion on the ground that it failed to furnish sufficient valid data.
The most historic judgement was passed on the night of July 2015 at 3.25 am, where in a Justice Misra-led Bench rejected the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon’s appeal to stop his execution. He received a death threat in writing in an anonymous letter which said, “Irrespective of the protection you may avail, we will eliminate you.” Memon was hanged two hours later at dawn. A three-judge Bench headed by Justice Misra upheld the death sentence awarded to the four convicts of the Nirbhaya rape case on May 5, 2017.
Interestingly, brother judge Justice Chelmeshwar was rumoured to become next CJI for having been the lone dissenter against the collegium system, while NJAC was being debated vigorously as the best alternative. lately, the media have reported that the collegium of judges headed by CJI Khehar rejected the NJAC idea altogether with the sole view to ensuring absolute national security.
Some interesting facts about how the Supreme Court manages affairs including selection of CJI:
Supreme Court judge Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, who was elevated to the apex court on Friday from the Allahabad High Court where he was the Chief Justice, was born on November 11, 1959. That makes him 56 years, six months and a few days young, and young he is for a Supreme Court judge. In judicial circles, your birthday is important. For one, as in many other jobs too, it determines your retirement age. Supreme Court judges have to retire at 65, which means Justice Chandrachud will sit on the apex court Bench longer than most, untilNovember 10, 2024. This will also be fundamental to him being the CJI one day in an elaborate and complex system that has evolved by convention as much as not.
How it works:
The CJI is traditionally appointed by the outgoing incumbent on the day of his retirement. By convention, the outgoing CJI selects the most senior then-sitting Supreme Court judge. Seniority is determined not by age but by:
4 The date a judge was appointed to the Supreme Court.
4 If two judges are elevated to the court on the same day,
q the one who was sworn in first would trump another;
q if both were sworn in on the same day, the one with more years of High Court service would ‘win’ in the seniority stakes;
q an appointment from the Bench would ‘trump’ in seniority an appointee from the bar.
These tie-breakers aren’t just theoretical though Justice Ruma Pal was elevated to the CJI post by Justice YK Sabharwal, who in 2000 was sworn in at the Supreme Court a few hours before her on the same day.
And justice AS Ahmadi became the CJI in 1994 instead of Justice Kuldip Singh, both appointed to the court on the same day in 1988, due to Singh having come from the bar and Ahmadi, therefore, having been a judge for longer.
Therefore, barring early retirements, deaths, impeachments or anything else unforeseeable, the order of upcoming CJI is basically set in stone.
Interestingly, these rules aren’t really written down anywhere but are a matter of judicial ‘convention’.
What will happen nowIJ
When CJI TS Thakur (who became the CJI on December 3, 2015) retired on January 3, 2017, he was succeeded by Justice JS Khehar, who will hold office until August 27, 2017, at which point Justice Dipak Misra will take over until October 2, 2018, followed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi until November 17, 2019, followed by a longer term for Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde until April 23, 2021; he will be succeeded by Justice NV Ramana until August 26, 2022, after which there will be a micro-stint by Justice UU lalit until November 8, 2022, at which point the reign will start of Justice Chandrachud for just under two years until November 10, 2024.
Many Supreme Court judges will not get a stab at CJI-ship, of course, through for no fault of theirs.
The other judges appointed with Chandrachud, for instance, will all have retired before their senior brother judge lalit retires as CJI onNovember 8, 2022: justice Ashok Bhushan will retire on July 4, 2021, justice l Nageswara Rao on September 1, 2021 and Justice AM Khanwilkar on July 29, 2022.
Also most likely skipped by the birthday lottery ladder (in order of seniority) will be Justices Anil R Dave, Jasti Chelameswar, Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla, Madan Bhimarao lokur, V Gopala Gowda, Pinaki Chandra Ghose, Kurian Joseph, Arjan Kumar Sikri, Shiva Kirti Singh, Chockalingam Nagappan, RK Agrawal, Arun Mishra, Adarsh Kumar Goel, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, R Banumathi, Prafulla Chandra Pant and Amitava Roy. But let us wish them well, thank them and remember them. Their position may never be as visible as that of the CJI; it may be less glorious (if you call the often thankless task of administration and people management glorious) and they may make slightly less money than the CJI (Rs 90,000 per month base salary as opposed to the CJI’s Rs 1 lakh). But their service to the country should be as welcome and as appreciated.