Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde took oath as the 47th Chief Justice of India administered by President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday.
The fourth CJI from Maharashtra will have a tenure of about 18 months.
Justice Bobde was part of the five-judge constitution bench hearing longest-running Ayodhya land dispute case which delivered its historic judgment on November 9.
Earlier this month, CJI Ranjan Gogoi had written to the Government recommending Justice SA Bobde as his successor.
Gogoi had recommended, by writing a letter of appointment to the Ministry of Law and Justice, for the second senior most judge Justice Bobde as the next Chief Justice of India.
As per tradition, the sitting CJI has to write and recommend the name of the next senior judge after him as his successor.
According to the Memorandum of Procedure, which governs the appointment of members of the higher judiciary, “appointment to the office of the Chief Justice of India should be of the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court considered fit to hold the office”.
Under this process, after receiving the CJI’s recommendation, the law minister puts it before the prime minister who advises the President on the matter.
63-year old Bobde, who was born in Nagpur Maharashtra on 24 April 1955, studied in Nagpur University. He hails from a family of lawyers. His father Arvind Bobde was the advocate-general of Maharashtra and his elder brother late Vinod Arvind Bobde a renowned senior advocate of Supreme Court.