Law minister says don't question government's intention on CJI's appointment

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on June 18 that the government's intention on appointing the next Chief Justice of India (CJI) should not be questioned.

Replying to a query on whether the government would follow protocol and appoint Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the successor to CJI Dipak Misra, Prasad said, "The question is imaginary...as far as the appointment of the Chief Justice of India is concerned, the convention is clear...the sitting chief justice names the senior-most judge (of the top court) as his successor. When the name comes to us, we will discuss it."

Misra's term ends on October 2, 2018, who is responsible to appoint the senior-most Supreme Court judge as his successor.

Seniority is determined by date of appointment to the Supreme Court and not by age. However, the process of appointing a CJI has been previously breached twice.

On April 25 1973, Justice AN Ray was appointed as the CJI by the Indira Gandhi-led government. Ray was chosen over three judges who were senior to him.

The decision on the appointment was taken following the judgement delivered by the remaining judges in the Kesavananda Bharati case.

In the second incident, in January 29, 1977 the process was not followed, during Emergency when Justice MH Beg superseded Justice HR Khanna as the CJI.

Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was also came close to breaking the rule, when he wanted to supersede Justice Patanjali Sastri after India's first CJI Harilal Kania passed away while in office.