Who is the present Chief Justice of India?
Justice DY Chandrachud has taken the oath as the 50th Chief Justice of India. President of India, Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to him in the Rashtrapati Bhavan at 10 AM Wednesday.
He succeeded Justice Uday Umesh Lalit who retired on November 8, 2022.
He is the son of India’s longest-serving CJI Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud. His father was the 16th Chief Justice of India who served from 2 February 1978 to 11 July 1985.
Dhananjaya Yashwant Chandrachud was born on November 11, 1959. After his schooling from Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai and St. Columba’s School, Delhi, he earned his honours in economics and mathematics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi in 1979. He got his Bachelor of Laws degree from the Faculty of Law at the University of Delhi in 1982. Then, he obtained a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School in 1983.
While studying on the prestigious Inlaks Scholarship, he received Joseph H. Beale Prize at Harvard. He finished his Doctorate of Juridical Science from Harvard Law School.
During his Bachelor, he assisted lawyers and judges as a junior advocate. He joined Sullivan and Cromwell after graduating from Harvard. For some years, he practiced law in the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court of India.
In June 1998, the Bombay High Court designated him as a Senior Advocate. As a senior advocate, he appeared in different significant cases including public interest litigation, rights of bonded women workers, rights of HIV positive workers in the workplace, contract labour and the rights of religious and linguistic minorities.
Then the same year, he was appointed as the Additional Solicitor General of India and remained in the position till his appointment as the judge.
On 29 March 2000, he was appointed as the additional judge in the Bombay High Court and was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court on October 31, 2013. He became a Supreme Court judge on May 13, 2016. He was sworn in as the 50th Chief Justice of India on November 9, 2022.
During his tenure, he has given several notable judgments including decriminalization of consensual homosexuality, recognition of the right to privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21, and decriminalization of adultery. He was also part of the bench which upheld the rights of unmarried women to terminate their pregnancy upto 24 weeks and the right of women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple.
He was the only judge in nine-judge Constitution bench who held Aadhaar Act to be unconstitutional for having been passed as a Money Bill.
