CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA (CJI)

About:

• Justice Lalit will assume charge on August 27, a day after Justice N.V. Ramana demits office as the CJI. Justice Lalit will have a brief tenure as he will demit office on November 8 after holding the charge as the CJI for a little under three months.
• Justice Lalit will be the second CJI who was directly elevated to the apex court Bench from the Bar. Justice S.M. Sikri was the first lawyer to be elevated directly to the top court Bench in March 1964 and went on to become the 13th CJI in January 1971.
• While Supreme Court judges retire on attaining the age of 65, judges of the 25 High Courts superannuate at the age of 62.
• Justice Lalit has been part of several landmark judgments, including the one which held the practice of divorce through instant triple talaq among Muslims illegal and unconstitutional.
• Before his elevation as a judge, he was appointed a special public prosecutor for the CBI to conduct trial in the 2G spectrum allocation case.
• Starting out at the Bombay High Court, he shifted his practice to Delhi in January 1986, and in April 2004, he was designated as a senior advocate by the apex court. He was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court on August 13, 2014.