Justice S A Bobde to take oath as next Chief Justice of India on November 18

As per convention, CJI Ranjan Gogoi had recommended the name of Justice Bobde as his successor on October 19. Justice Bobde is the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court after the CJI.

Justice Bobde had played a key role in settling differences between the four Supreme Court judges — Justices Gogoi, J Chelameswar, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph (now retired) — who held a press conference against then CJI Dipak Misra in January 2018.

A former Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, he has been part of important cases, including the sexual harassment case against Gogoi. The CJI had assigned Bobde to decide on the subsequent steps in the case after he came under severe criticism for calling a special Supreme Court sitting on April 20 to trash the complaint.

Bobde was on the bench which gave a judgment in the Aadhaar case, the right to life case and is also hearing the ongoing Ayodhya title dispute.