Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was on Saturday sworn in as the 49th Chief Justice of India. President Droupadi Murmu administered him the oath at a brief ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers were present at the ceremony.
Justice Lalit's predecessor, Justice N V Ramana, was also present.
Addressing one function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Friday the outgoing Chief Justice N V Ramana termed pendency of cases as a "huge challenge" and rued that the judiciary has "fallen short of people's expectations" at times.
He also said the appointment of 11 Supreme Court and 224 high court judges during his tenure was a reflection of the "coherence and determination" of judges to strengthen the judiciary.
The 48th CJI, who had succeeded S A Bobde on April 24, 2021, spoke at two events on his last day in office and expressed regret for not being able to pay much attention to issues of listing and posting of matters for hearing in the Supreme Court.
The jurisprudence has evolved considerably in the last 75 years, and "our judiciary is not defined by a single order or decision...most of the times, it has championed the cause of the people", he said.
Justice Ramana thanked his colleagues in the collegiums and consulting judges for being able to recommend so many names for judgeships.
"I am happy to inform you that thanks to my collegium judges and consulting judges, in the last 16 months, we could appoint 11 judges to the apex court, and out of the 255 recommended for the various high courts, 224 judges are already appointed.
"This amounts to nearly 20 per cent of the total sanctioned strength of the high courts. Due to our concerted efforts, we could make considerable progress in appointing more women judges and promoting social diversity on the bench. We got 15 new chief justices for various high courts during the same period. This process is a reflection of the coherence and determination of the judges to strengthen our institution, to further the goal of justice, Justice Ramana said.