Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, the seniormost judge of the Supreme Court, was on Monday appointed the 50th Chief Justice of India and he will take oath on November 9.
Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju announced the appointment of Justice Chandrachud, who will serve as the CJI for two years.
Justice Chandrachud, who is the son of the longest serving CJI Y.V.Chandrachud, succeeds Justice U.U.Lalit. His father was the head of the Indian judiciary from February 22, 1978 to July 11, 1985.
The incumbent CJI demits office on November 8, on attaining the age of 65, after a brief tenure of 74 days.
Justice Chandrachud, who sees dissent as the "safety valve of democracy," was part of several Constitution benches and landmark verdicts of the top court including on matters relating to the Ayodhya land dispute and the right to privacy.
"In exercise of the power conferred by the Constitution of India, Honourable President appoints Dr Justice D.Y.Chandrachud, Judge, Supreme Court as the Chief Justice of India with effect from 9th November, 22," Minister Rijiju tweeted quoting the notification.
Justice Chandrachud, who was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on May 13, 2016, will demit office on November 10, 2024.
Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister P.K.Mishra and top officials of the Department of Justice in the Law Ministry personally handed over the warrant of appointment signed by the president to Justice Chandrachud this afternoon following which a formal notification announcing his appointment as the next CJI was issued, sources said.
"Extending my best wishes to Justice D.Y.Chandrachud for the formal oath-taking ceremony on November 9", Rijiju said in another tweet.
CJI Lalit had on October 11 recommended to the Centre the name of Justice Chandrachud as his successor.
The CJI-designate was part of the benches that delivered path-breaking judgements on decriminalising same-sex relations after it partially struck down Section 377 of the IPC, the validity of the Aadhaar scheme and the Sabarimala issue.
Recently, a bench headed by him expanded the scope of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy(MTP) Act and the corresponding rules to include unmarried women for abortion between 20-24 weeks of pregnancy.
The Justice Chandrachud-led bench had also passed several directions to assuage the miseries faced by people during the COVID-19 crisis, terming the brutal second wave of the pandemic last year as a "national crisis".
Recently, Justice Chandrachud was among the two judges of the apex court Collegium which had objected to the method of "circulation" adopted for eliciting the views of its members on the appointment of judges to the top court.
On September 30, a bench headed by Justice Chandrachud sat till 9.10pm, around five hours beyond the regular working hours of the apex court, to hear 75 cases to clear the board before the onset of the Dussehra vacation.
In a landmark verdict delivered in February 2020, a bench headed by Justice Chandrachud had directed that women officers in the Army be granted permanent commission and command postings, rejecting the Centre's stand of their physiological limitations as being based on 'sex stereotypes' and 'gender discrimination against women.'
Later, the Justice Chandrachud-led bench also paved the way for granting permanent commission to women officers in the Indian Navy, saying a level playing field ensures that women have the opportunity to overcome "histories of discrimination."
Justice Chandrachud, who has played a pivotal role in digitization of the judiciary, has been part of several Constitution benches.
On November 9, 2019, the apex court in a unanimous verdict cleared the way for the construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya and directed the Centre to allot a five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque. Justice Chandrachud was part of the five-judge Constitution bench which dealt with the Ayodhya case.
In a strong dissent, Justice Chandrachud differed with other members of a five-judge Constitution bench which by a majority verdict upheld the constitutional validity of the unique biometric identity number Aadhaar.
Justice Chandrachud held Aadhaar to be unconstitutional and violative of fundamental rights.
He concurred with the majority verdict in the Sabarimala case in holding that the practice of prohibiting women of menstruating age from entering the Sabarimala temple was discriminatory and violative of women's fundamental rights.
Born on November 11, 1959, Justice Chandrachud was judge of the Bombay High Court from March 29, 2000, until his appointment as the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court on October 31, 2013.
Justice Chandrachud was designated as a senior advocate by the Bombay High Court in June 1998 and became Additional Solicitor General in the same year till his appointment as a judge.
After completing BA with Honours in Economics from St Stephen's College, New Delhi, Justice Chandrachud did his LLB from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University, and obtained an LLM degree and a Doctorate in Juridical Sciences (SJD) from Harvard Law School, USA. He practised law at the Supreme Court and the Bombay High Court and was a visiting professor of comparative Constitutional law at the University of Mumbai.
