The president has cleared for Justice HL Dattu to become the next Chief Justice of India (CJI) on 28 September 2014, replacing RM Lodha when he retires from the Supreme Court, reported the PTI.

Dattu reportedly said: “I will request for blessing of all citizens of this country to give me courage and confidence to take this institution of mine to the highest stride... It will be the happiest day of his life to head the institution of judiciary [and] at the end of the day I can only say that I will do my best to improve the institution... Mine is the best institution in the world”.