Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud has written to the Union law ministry proposing Justice Sanjiv Khanna as his successor, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.
Khanna is the second-most senior judge of the Supreme Court. His appointment will have to be approved by the Union government.
Chandrachud will retire on November 10.
Khanna, who will become the 51st chief justice of the Supreme Court, will have a tenure of six months before he retires on May 13.
The letter written by Chandrachud to the government last week is part of the convention on the appointment of the top court’s chief justices.
Khanna enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Delhi in 1983. He practiced at the district courts at the Tis Hazari complex before moving to the Delhi High Court, where he argued in several criminal cases as an additional public prosecutor.
He was also the senior standing counsel for the Income Tax Department and became the standing counsel (civil) for the National Capital Territory in 2004.
Khanna became an additional judge of the High Court in 2005 and was elevated to the permanent position a year later.
He was elevated as a Supreme Court judge in January 2019. He never served as the chief justice of any High Court.
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