CJI Lalit will have a tenure of less than three months as he is due to retire on November 8.
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was sworn in as the 49th Chief Justice of India (CJI) on Saturday, August 27. President Droupadi Murmu was sworn in during a short 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 Lalita's predecessor, Justice N V Raman, was also present.
After taking the oath, Chief Justice Lalit sought the blessings of his family by touching their feet, including those of his 90-year-old father and former Supreme Court judge Umesh Ranganath Lalit. As CJI, Justice Lalit will have a tenure of 74 days and would relinquish office on November 8 after attaining the age of 65. Justice DY Chandrachud, the senior most judge after Justice Lalit, is next in line to become the Chief Justice of India.
What did Chief Justice Lalit Said ?
Speaking at an event organized by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) to bid farewell to Justice Ramana on Friday, Justice Lalit said he always believed that the role of the apex court was to lay down the law in a clear and best possible manner. to do this is to have larger benches as soon as possible so that the problems are immediately clear. "So we will try hard to say that yes, we will always have at least one constitutional bench functioning throughout the year," he said.
Chief Justice Lalit said one of the areas he intends to work on is the list of cases for constitutional courts and matters that are specifically referred to the three-judge bench. On the issue of the list of issues, he said: "I must assure you that we will work hard to make the list as simple, clear and transparent as possible". On the mention of urgent matters, Justice Lalit said he would definitely look into it. “I will speak to all my learned colleagues on the bench and we will certainly sort this out and before long you will have a clear regime where any urgent matter can be spoken at will before the relevant courts,” he said.
Several important cases, including constitutional matters, are likely to be decided before the apex court during Justice Lalit's tenure as CJI. The Supreme Court recently announced that 25 five-judge constitutional matters will be listed from August 29.
Among the important five-judge matters that have come up are a plea challenging the Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Act, 2019, which provided reservation to economically weaker sections, a challenge to WhatsApp's privacy policy and an issue of MPs or MPs seeking immunity from criminal prosecution by prosecution for taking a bribe for a speech or vote in the House.
