Breaking: CJI NV Ramana Recommends Justice UU Lalit As Next Chief Justice Of India

Chief Justice of India NV Ramana has written to the Union Government recommending the name of Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, the second senior judge of the Supreme Court, as the next Chief Justice of India.

CJI Ramana is retiring with effect from August 26. Recently, the Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju had written to the CJI requesting him to name the successor.

If appointed, Justice Lalit will become the second CJI who was directly elevated to the apex court Bench from the Bar after Justice S M Sikri, who became the 13th CJI in January 1971.

Justice Lalit, who hails from Maharashtra, will have a relatively short term as the 49th Chief Justice of India -little less than three months - as he will retire on November 8, 2022. Before his elevation as a judge of the Supreme Court on August 13, 2014, Justice Lalit was a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court. His father Justice UR Lalit was a senior advocate and was an additional judge of the Delhi High Court.

In 2019, Justice Lalit had recused from the Ayodhya Case, citing his appearance for former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh in a contempt case in relation to the demolition of Babri Masjid. Justice Lalit had recently 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 suo motu case for streamlining the process of consideration of mitigating circumstances in death penalty matters.

Justice Lalit was part of the majority opinon of the Constitution Bench judgment which declared Triple Talaq as unconstitutional. He also 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 administartive committee. Last year, a bench led by him reversed the controversial "skin-to-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.

As a lawyer, Justice Lalit was especially known for his practice in the field of criminal law and has handled several high profile criminal cases. In 2011, the Supreme Court had appointed him as a Special Public Prosecutor in the 2G scam case. 

Born on November 9, 1957, Justice Lalit had enrolled as an advocate in June 1983 and practised in the Bombay High Court till December 1985. He shifted his practice to Delhi in January 1986. He worked with the former Attorney-General, Soli J. Sorabjee, from 1986 to 1992.  In April 2004, he was designated as a senior advocate by the apex court.

Justice Lalit as the executive chairman of NALSA since May 2021, initiated several programs to give impetus for alternate dispute resolution through lok adalats and legal aid programs across the countryr