Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was sworn in as the 49th Chief Justice of India on Saturday, August 27, 2022. The new CJI has now replaced Justice NV Ramana, who was the 48th Chief Justice of India.
President Droupadi Murmu administered Justice UU Lalit the oath at the ceremony on Saturday at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. Apart from the President, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers and outgoing CJI Justice NV Ramana were also present at the ceremony.
CJI UU Lalit will be India’s chief
justice for a very short term because he is scheduled to retire on November 8,
having served just 74 days. Seniority-wise, Justice DY Chandrachud is expected
to become CJI after Justice Lalit.
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Who is CJI UU Lalit?
Born on November
9, 1954, Justice Uday Umesh Lalit is the son of former additional judge of Bombay
High Court UR Lalit. Justice UU Lalit joined the Bar Council of India in June
1983 and began practising in the Supreme Court in 1986. From 1986 to 1992, he
worked with former Attorney General of India, Soli Sorabjee.
On April 29, 2004,
Justice Lalit was appointed senior advocate of the Supreme Court. An extremely
popular lawyer with the who’s who of Indian politics as his clientele. In 2011,
Justice Lalit was appointed special public prosecutor in the 2G spectrum cases.
At the time, it was said that “in the interest of a fair prosecution of the
case, appointment of UU Lalit is eminently suitable.”
Justice UU Lalit
was appointed as a judge of the Indian Supreme Court on August 13, 2014.
Justice UU Lalit
had famously recused himself in the Ayodhya temple case because he and appeared
for former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh in a related case. Justice
Lalit was also among judges who had voted in favour of declaring Triple Talaq
unconstitutional.
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Justice UU Lalit
was also among the judges on the two-judge bench of the Supreme Court that held
that the prescribed six-month waiting period under Section 13B(2) of the Hindu
Marriage Act, for divorce by mutual consent, is not mandatory.
NV Ramana served
as the Chief Justice of the Indian Supreme Court from April 24, 2021. His term
will come to an end of August 26. Chief Justice Ramana had taken over from Justice
SA Bobde.