Narinder Hargun, the Chief Justice, is to step down from the post.

A statement from Government House confirmed that Mr Hargun had notified Rena Lalgie, the Governor, that he will be retiring at the end of the year.

The Governor has instructed the Judicial and Legal Services Committee to begin the appointment process for Mr Justice Hargun’s successor.

It is expected that the post will be advertised locally and internationally.

Mr Justice Hargun, 68, became the island’s top judge in July 2018.

He graduated with a master’s degree in law from the London School of Economics and was Called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1978.

He was Called to the Bermuda Bar three years later and spent more than 35 years as an attorney for Conyers, where he became head of the law firm’s litigation department.

When being sworn in by the Governor, John Rankin, in July 2018, Mr Justice Hargun pledged that he would “apply the law as I find it, and to apply the law impartially”.

The appointment was not without controversy.

Born in India, Mr Justice Hargun’s family moved to Britain when he was a child. He came to work in Bermuda in his twenties and has Bermudian status after living here for more than 40 years.

Government MPs, however, claimed that Mr Rankin had ignored their recommendations.

David Burt, the Premier, said that the selection was “an affront to the elected Government of Bermuda”.

Mr Burt said: “Bermudians must feel that fairness, equity and, above all, justice can be found in all our courts.

“After 50 years of this constitutionally sanctioned disrespect, this is the latest example of this modern era of democracy being frustrated by the application of standards from the last century.”

Shortly after the appointment was announced, Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, the Minister of Public Works, told MPs in the House of Assembly: “In all of these things that we do, at least as I see it, you must leave a legacy, and if you want that legacy to be something people remember fondly, regardless of their political persuasion, you must produce somebody to take your place other than an Indian.”

There was further criticism even after Mr Justice Hargun had settled into the post.

In March 2019, during a speech in the House of Assembly in which he decried the lack of Black Bermudians getting promoted, Derrick Burgess, the Deputy Speaker of the House, said: “The Chief Justice is White. He goes for White in this country. He is accepted as White. He wouldn’t have it if he was looking like me.”