Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was on Saturday sworn in as the 49th Chief Justice of India by President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
Justice Lalit will have a short tenure of 74 days and retire on November 8, 2022 at the age of 65.
According to seniority and protocol, the next in line to head the top court will be Justice D Y Chadrachud, who will remain in office for two years and retire in 2024.
A practising advocate before his elevation to the top court in 2014, Justice Lalit had said transparency in listing of cases, putting in place a clear regime for mentioning urgent matters before respective benches and ensuring one Constitution bench throughout the year will be his priorities.
He is the second CJI after late Justice S M Sikri to be appointed directly from the Bar to the Supreme Court as a judge.
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Justice Lalit was born on November 9, 1957 in Solapur, Maharashtra, and began his career as an advocate in 1983, practising in the High Court of Bombay till 1985 before shifting his practice to Delhi in 1986.
Justice Lalit worked in the chambers of Soli J Sorabjee from 1986 till 1992 and was on the panel of lawyers for the Government of India when Sorabjee was the Attorney General.
He was also appointed amicus curiae in many important issues, including forest matters, vehicular pollution, pollution of Yamuna etc. He was appointed as special public prosecutor for CBI under the orders of the Supreme Court to conduct trial in all 2G matters.
The brief swearing-in ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, former president Ramnath Kovind, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, former CJI N V Ramana, and sitting and former Supreme Court judges among other dignitaries.