From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court work will be hit in the coming months because of the retirement of seven judges, including two chief justices, in 2022. It already has the pendency of 70,362 cases as on April 1, 2022.
The year will also see three Chief Justices taking the charge. The practice is that the CJI desists from calling the collegium to appoint the judges towards the end of his tenure. Present CJI is retiring on August 26 while his successor Justice Uday Umesh Lalit has the tenure of only two-and-a-half months till November 8 while Justice D Y Chandrachud will be in the post for two years up to November 10, 2024..
This is for the sixth time that the Supreme Court will have three Chief Justices of India in a calendar year. It happened earlier in 1954, 1966, 1989, 1991 and 1998.
Five Supreme Court judges who are retiring this year are Justices Vineet Saran (May 11), L Nageswara Rao (June 7), A M Khanwilkar (July 29, Ms Indira Banerjee (August 7) and Hemant Gupta (Oct 16).