President Droupadi Murmu, on Wednesday, appointed Justice Uday Umesh Lalit the next Chief Justice of India (CJI) with effect from August 27.
Chief Justice of India, Uday Umesh Lalit (File Photo)
A statement from the Ministry of Law and Justice said, “In exercise of the power conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the President has appointed Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, judge of the Supreme Court, as the Chief Justice of India. Justice Lalit will take over as the 49th Chief Justice of India on 27th August 2022”.
The Current Chief Justice of India, NV Ramana, will demit office on August 26 on superannuation.
Justice Lalit was appointed as judge of the Supreme Court in August 2014 from the Bar. He will become the second Chief Justice of India to be directly elevated to the Supreme Court from the Bar, after Justice S.M. Sikri, who served as the 13th CJI in 1971. He has served as a Member of Supreme Court Legal Services Committee for two terms.
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An official release said that Justice UU Lalit has to his credit several landmark judgments.
Born on November 9, 1957 at Solapur, Maharashtra, Justice Lalit was benrolled as an advocate by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa in June 1983. He practiced in the High Court of Bombay till December 1985 before shifting his practice to Delhi in January 1986.
Justice Lalit worked in the chambers of Soli J Sorabjee from October 1986 till 1992 and was on the panel of lawyers for the Union of India during the period Sorabjee was Attorney General for India.
From 1992 till 2002, he practiced as advocate-on-record and was designated as senior advocate by the Supreme Court in April 2004. He was also appointed amicus curiae in many important issues, including forest matters, vehicular pollution, pollution of Yamuna etc. He was appointed as special public prosecutor for CBI under the orders of the Supreme Court to conduct trial in all 2G matters.
CJI NV Ramana had, last week, recommended to the Government the name of Justice UU Lalit as his successor. The Secretariat of the CJI had received a communication from the Law Ministry on August 3 requesting the CJI to recommend the name of his successor.
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