Justice U.U. Lalit sworn in as the 49th Chief Justice of India; begins his 74-day tenure

On Saturday, the President of India Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Justice U.U. Lalit as the Chief Justice of India. In the ceremony held at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan, Justice Lalit took the oath in the name of God, under the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, previous Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, former President Ramnath Kovind, Supreme Court judges Justices DY Chandrachud, S Abdul Nazeer and the other dignitaries. The 90-year-Old Justice Lalit’s father UR Lalit was present to witness the oath taking ceremony of his son. On August 10, the formal notification appointing Justice Lalit as the 49th Chief Justice of India was issued, while following a recommendation made by the previous CJI NV Ramana, who retired on August 26. The first CJI to be elevated directly from the Bar was Justice S M Sikri, who became the 13th CJI in January 1971. Justice Lalit is the second Chief Justice of India to be elevated to the Supreme Court directly from the Bar. Justice Lalit as the 49th CJI will have a relatively short term of 74 days and he is to retire on 8th November, 2022. On August 13, 2014, before his elevation as a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Lalit was a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court and his father was a Senior Advocate, Justice UR Lalit and was an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court. However, Justice Lalit was part of the majority opinion of the Constitution Bench judgment which declared Triple Talaq as unconstitutional. Also, he led the bench which ordered the handing over of the administration of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple from the Travancore Royal Family to a Court-appointed administrative committee. Last year, the bench was led by him which reversed the controversial “skinto-skin” judgment of Bombay High Court and held that any physical contact with a minor with sexual intent will be an offence under POCSO even if there is no direct contact with skin. Recently, Justice Lalit had expressed the need to lay down proper guidelines to reduce the element of subjectivity in awarding death sentences and a bench led by him initiated a case of Suo motu for streamlining the process of consideration of mitigating circumstances in death penalty matters. Justice Lalit had recused from the Ayodhya Case in 2019, wherein citing his appearance for former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh in a contempt case in relation to the demolition of Babri Masjid. Justice Lalit, as a lawyer was especially known for his practice in the field of criminal law and has handled several high-profile criminal cases. The Supreme Court had appointed him as a Special Public Prosecutor in the 2G scam case in 2011. Justice Lalit, born on November 9, 1957, had enrolled as an advocate in June 1983 and practised in the Bombay High Court till December 1985. In January 1986, he shifted his practise to Delhi. Further, he worked with the former Attorney-General, Soli J. Sorabjee, from 1986 to 1992. He was designated as a senior advocate by the apex court in April 2004. Since May 2021, Justice Lalit as the executive chairman of NALSA and had initiated several programs to give impetus for alternate dispute resolution through lok adalats and legal aid programs across the countrY.