Justice Uday Umesh Lalit appointed 49th CJI

New Delhi: Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was on Wednesday appointed as the 49th Chief Justice of India after President Droupadi Murmu signed his warrant of appointment.

He will assume charge on August 27 after incumbent N V Ramana demits office the day before.

"In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, judge of the Supreme Court, to be the Chief Justice of India with effect from 27 August, 2022," a law ministry notification said. Justice Lalit will have a brief tenure of less than three months. He will turn 65 on November 8 when he demits office.

Earlier, CJI Ramana recommended to the Union government the name of Justice Lalit, the second seniormost judge of the Supreme Court as the next Chief Justice of India, as per convention.

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.

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 opinion 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 administrative 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.