Justice HL Dattu to be the next Chief Justice of India

New Delhi, September 3: Justice Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu is all set to be the next Chief Justice of India, reports said on Wednesday.

Justice HL Dattu, who has earlier served as the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court and Chhattisgarh High Court in 2007, will take over from the incumbent CJI RM Lodha, whose tenure comes to end on September 27th.

Justice Dattu was appointed as the judge in the Supreme Court December 17, 2008.

The government cleared Justice Dattu's name for the next CJI earlier this week.

After receiving a recommendation letter from the Union Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, CJI Justice Lodha reverted back to the law ministry, by approving Justice Dattu's name.

Then, the file was sent to PM Narendra Modi, who signed it and then forwarded it to President Pranab Mukherjee for the final approval.

In 2014, Justice Dattu will be the third CJI to take oath as the, former CJI P Sathasivam retired in April and Justice Lodha will retire this month.

Justice Dattu will have an extended tenure as the CJI till December 2015, as compared to his two predecessors.

On August 28, the apex court bench headed by Justice H L Dattu said that the plea of former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran in Aircel-Maxis deal case arising out of the investigation in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, is "premature" and law does not allow it to restrain the CBI from filing charge sheet against him.

OneIndia News