Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde has been appointed the next Chief Justice of India by President Ram Nath Kovind. Justice Bobde, succeeds Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and will take oath on November 18.

Justice SA Bobde is a former Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh high court and is due to retire on 23 April 2021.

Born on 24 April 1956 in Maharashtra's Nagpur, Justice Bobde studied in the Nagpur University. He then went on to join the Bombay high court in 2000 as additional judge. In 2012, he became the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh high court.

He was elevated to the Supreme Court in April, 2013 and has since been involved in top cases before the Supreme Court, including the Ayodhya temple-mosque dispute, the BCCI case and petitions against firecrackers.

Justice Gogoi, who was sworn in as Chief Justice of India on 3 October 2018, will retire on November 17.

The Chief Justice had gone by the convention to recommend the name of the next senior judge as his successor a month before his retirement, said official sources.