Oct 12, 2022
By: Vaamanaa SethiThe current Chief Justice of India U U Lalit, on Tuesday, recommended Justice D Y Chandrachud as his successor, to the Centre. CJI Lalit is slated to retire on November 8, 2022. The next CJI, who will be India’s 50th CJI, is expected to take an oath on November 9.
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If appointed, then Chandrachud might serve as CJI for two years — which is said to be the longest such term in the recent past. A CJI, once appointed, can remain in office until the age of 65.
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Dhananjaya Chandrachud was appointed as a judge at the Supreme Court of India on May 13, 2016. During his tenure, he penned important judgments in cases like abortion rights of unmarried women, validity of Aadhar scheme and the Sabrimalai case.
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Justice Chandrachud was also a part of a bench that delivered the judgment on the long-pending Ayodhya land dispute case. He was also a part of the bench that decriminalized Section 377 in a verdict which said that it violated rights to equality.
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Yet another landmark judgment passed by a five-judge bench he was a part of, is the recognition of ‘living will’, and permitted removal of life-support systems for the terminally ill or those in incurable comas.
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A lesser known fact about him is that he is the son of Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud, who was one of the longest serving Chief Justices of India in history.
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The 63-year-old judge has a bachelor’s degree in law from Delhi University. Later on, he went to Harvard University to pursue an LLM degree and a doctoral in Juridical Science.
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He practiced law at the Supreme Court of India and Bombay High Court. He was named as Senior Advocate by the Bombay High Court and also became an Additional Solicitor General in 1998.
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Afterwards, he was appointed as a judge of Bombay High Court in 2000. He then took over as the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court in October 2013 and later on, in 2016, he was appointed as a judge in the Supreme Court.
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