Justice UU Lalit Sworn-In As the 49th Chief Justice of India

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• Aug 27, 2022 | Guriya Khatun

He guaranteed that the Supreme Court would have at least one Constitution Bench operating throughout the year.

Digital Desk: Justice Uday Umesh Lalit took the oath as the 49th Chief Justice of India. President Droupadi Murmu swore in Justice Lalit at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

CJI Lalit replaced Justice NV Ramana, who retired on August 26.

Justice Lalit has pledged to uphold a clear-cut regime in which any pressing cases may be freely brought before the appropriate benches of the Supreme Court.

He guaranteed that the Supreme Court would have at least one Constitution Bench operating all year round.

The role of the Supreme Court, according to Justice Lalit, "is to lay down law with clarity and 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," ANI reported.

On his last day of work, outgoing CJI Ramana expressed regret for not being able to list all the outstanding cases and claimed that the court had been battling a backlog of cases that had rapidly increased during the pandemic months.

Prior to being appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Lalit was a well-known senior advocate. On August 13, 2014, he was appointed as the Supreme Court justice.

Justice Lalit will be the second Chief Justice of India to be promoted from the bar directly to the Supreme Court bench. The first lawyer to be promoted directly to the top court bench was Justice SM Sikri, who took over as the 13th Chief Justice of India in January 1971.