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.
Justice Lalit was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court directly from the Bar on August 13th, 2014. In May 2021, Lalit J got appointed as the Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).
Justice Lalit will become the second Chief Justice of India to be directly elevated to the Supreme Court from the Bar, after Justice S.M. Sikri, who served as the 13th CII in 1971.
Justice Lalit has served as a Member of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee for two terms and has to his credit several landmark judgments.
Born on 9th November 1957, in Solapur, Maharashtra, Justice Lalit was enrolled as an Advocate by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa in June 1983. He practised in the High Court of Bombay till December 1985 before shifting his practice to Delhi in January 1986.
In 2011, a Supreme Court bench of Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly appointed Lalit as the special public prosecutor for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 2G spectrum cases, stating that “in the interest of a fair prosecution of the case, the appointment of UU Lalit is eminently suitable.”
During his tenure, Justice Lalit recused himself from several high-profile cases, including Yakub Menon, Malegaon blasts, Asaram Bapu, teachers’ recruitment scam case, Ayodhya Title Dispute etc.
