The President of India Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Justice U.U Lalit as the Chief Justice of India on Saturday. Justice Lalit took the oath in the name of God in the ceremony held at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan in the presence of prime minister Narendra Modi, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar, Union Law minister Kiren Rijiju, ex-Chief Justice of India, NV Ramana, former president Ramnath Kovind, Supreme Court judges Justices DY Chandrachud, S Abdul Nazeer and other delegates.
Justice Lalit’s 90-year-old father UR Lalit was present to witness the oath-taking ceremony of his son. Following a recommendation made by the previous CJI NV Ramana, the formal notification appointing Justice Lalit as the 49th Chief Justice of India was issued on the 10th of August.
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. Lalit will have a relatively short term of 74 days, as the 49th CJI. He has to retire on November 8th, this year. Prior to 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 an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court.
Justice Lalit had also worked as a lawyer. He is especially known for his practice in the field of criminal law and has handled several high-profile criminal cases. The Supreme Court had appointed him as a Special Public Prosecutor in 2011, in the 2G scam case. Later as an executive chairman of NALSA since May 2021, initiated various programs to provide the impetus for alternate dispute resolution through lok adalats and legal aid programs across the nation.