BREAKING| President Appoints Justice UU Lalit As The Next Chief Justice Of India

On 3rd August, 2022, the Secretariat of the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had received a communication from the Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju requesting him to recommend the name of his successor. The very next day, CJI Ramana had written back to the Union Government recommending Justice Lalit, the second senior most judge of the Supreme Court as the next Chief Justice of India, as per convention. CJI Ramana is to demit office on 26th August, 2022.

Justice Lalit is the second CJI to be elevated to the Supreme Court directly from the Bar. The first was Justice S M Sikri, who became the 13th CJI in January 1971.

As the 49th CJI, Justice Lalit will have a relatively short term, a little less than three months. He is to retire on 8th November, 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 Bombay High Court.

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. 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.

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. 

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 country.

Click here to read the official notification