New Delhi: A day after Justice NV Ramana retired, Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was sworn in as 49th Chief Justice of India on Saturday. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office of the Chief Justice of India to Justice Lalit at Rashtrapati Bhavan in the morning hours.
He succeeds Justice NV Ramana, who retired on August 26. Justice Ramana had recommended Justice Lalit as his successor in keeping with convention and norms of seniority. The President subsequently confirmed Justice Lalit’s appointment as the new CJI.
Justice Lalit will have a brief tenure of 74 days as the head of India’s judiciary and would demit office on 8 November.
Yesterday at the farewell function of Justice Ramana, Justice Lalit said that during his tenure of nearly three months he will focus on three key areas and one of his top priorities would be to make the listing of cases simple, clear and as transparent as possible.
Delhi | Justice Uday Umesh Lalit takes oath as The Chief Justice of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan in the presence of President Droupadi Murmu pic.twitter.com/dxPMsS4IYE
— ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2022
Justice Lalit has also promised to ensure a clear-cut regime where any urgent matters can freely be mentioned before the respective benches of the top court.
He assured that there will be at least one Constitution Bench functioning throughout the year in the Supreme Court.
Justice Lalit said, “I have always believed that the role of the Supreme Court is to lay down law with clarity, consistency, and the best possible way to do it is to have larger benches as early as possible, wherever the matters are referred to such benches so that the issues get clarified immediately, the matter has consistency and the people are well aware of what exactly are the contours of the peculiar positions in law.”
Watch:
#WATCH | President Droupadi Murmu administers the oath of Office of the Chief Justice of India to Justice Uday Umesh Lalit at Rashtrapati Bhavan pic.twitter.com/HqayMJDwBB
— ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2022
The outgoing CJI Ramana on his last working day apologised for not being able to list all the pending matters and said the court has been firefighting pendency, which rose alarmingly during the pandemic months.