After president & vice president, India gets new chief justice in Justice UU Lalit

Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was on Wednesday (10) appointed as the 49th Chief Justice of India (CJI).

A release from the country's law and justice ministry said that president Droupadi Murmu appointed Justice Lalit as the next CJI. He take over his new responsibility on August 27, succeeding NV Ramana.

Justice Lalit was appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court of India in August 2014 from the Bar. He will become the second CJI to be directly elevated to the top court from the Bar, after Justice SM Sikri, who served as the 13th CJI in 1971.

Justice Lalit has served as a Member of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee for two terms.

An official release said that Justice Lalit has to his credit several landmark judgments.

Born on November 9, 1957, in Solapur in the western state of Maharashtra, Justice Lalit was enrolled as an Advocate by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa in June 1983. He practised in the Bombay High Court till December 1985 before shifting his practice to Delhi in January the next year.

Justice Lalit worked in the chambers of former attorney general of India Soli Sorabjee from October 1986 till 1992 and was on the panel of lawyers for the Union of India.

From 1992 till 2002, he practised as Advocate on Record and was designated as a senior advocate by the Supreme Court in April 2004.

He was also appointed Amicus Curiae in many important issues, including forest matters, vehicular pollution and pollution of the River Yamuna. He was appointed as Special Public Prosecutor for the elite investigative agency Central Bureau of Investigation under the orders of the Supreme Court to conduct the trial in matters related to the 2G spectrum corruption case.

Outgoing CJI Justice Ramana had last week recommended the name of Justice Lalit to the Indian government as his successor.

He did it after the secretariat of the CJI received a communication from the law ministry on August 3 requesting the CJI to recommend the successor's name.

[With agency inputs]