NEW DELHI, Aug 27: Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was on Saturday sworn in as the 49th Chief Justice of India (CJI). President Droupadi Murmu administered him the oath in a brief ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former president Ram Nath Kovind, former vice president M Venkaiah Naidu and Union ministers, including law minister Kiren Rijiju, were present at the ceremony. Justice Lalit’s predecessor, Justice NV Ramana, who retired as the CJI on Friday, was also present.
After being sworn in, Justice Lalit sought the blessings of his family elders by touching their feet, including that of his 90-year-old father and former high court judge Umesh Ranganath Lalit.
As the CJI, Justice Lalit will have a tenure of 74 days and would demit office on November 8 on attaining the age of 65 years. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, the senior-most judge after Justice Lalit, is next in line to be the Chief Justice of India.
Speaking at a function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) to bid farewell to Justice Ramana on Friday, Justice Lalit had said he had always believed that the role of the top court is to lay down law with clarity and the best possible way to do it was to have larger Benches as early as possible so that the issues get clarified immediately.
Justice Lalit said one of the areas in which he intends to work is about the listing of cases before the Constitution Benches and matters which were specially referred to three-judge benches. On the issue of listing of matters, he said, “….I must assure you that we will strive hard to make the listing as simple, as clear, and as transparent as possible.”
During Justice Lalit’s tenure as the CJI, several important cases, including Constitution Bench matters, are likely to come up for adjudication before the apex court. Among the important five-judge Bench matters which have been listed is a plea challenging the Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Act, 2019 which provided reservation to Economically Weaker Sections, the challenge to the WhatsApp privacy policy, and the issue of parliamentarians or legislators claiming immunity from criminal prosecution for taking a bribe to give a speech or a vote in the House.
(Manas Dasgupta)
