New Delhi, Nov 18 (UNI) Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde on Monday took oath as the 47th Chief Justice of India (CJI).
President Ram Nath Kovind administered him the oath of office here at Rashtrapati Bhawan. He succeeds Justice Ranjan Gogoi who retired on Sunday.
During the swearing-in ceremony, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Vice-President Hamid Ansari, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Apex Court and Delhi High Court’s Justices were also present.
Chief Justice Bobde’s tenure will end on April 23, 2021. His father Arvind Srinivas Bobde was also a reputed lawyer.
Born on April 24, 1956 in Nagpur, Maharashtra, Justice Bobde completed his Bachelor of Arts and LLB degrees from Nagpur University. In 1978, he enrolled himself as an advocate of the Bar Council of Maharashtra. After practising law at the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court for 21 years, he became a senior advocate in 1998.
Later, Justice Bobde was elevated to the Bombay High Court on March 29, 2000, as Additional Judge before taking oath as Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2012.
He took six months as CJ of Madhya Pradesh High Court to be elevated as a judge in the Supreme Court.
Justice Bobde has been part of many historical judgments. On November 9, he was part of the five-judge Constitution bench that delivered a unanimous verdict on the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.
In a path-breaking judgement in the land dispute case, the Supreme Court had said the disputed land in Ayodhya would be given to a government-run trust for the building of a temple while an alternative plot will be given to the Sunni Waqf Board for a mosque.
The five-judge Constitution bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi heard the case for 40 days. The other members of the bench are Justices S A Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer.
He was also part of a nine-judge Constitution bench that delivered a historical judgement on ‘Right to Privacy’ in August 2017. The Apex Court had ruled that the right to privacy is a fundamental right under the Constitution of India. They said that it is intrinsic to life and liberty and thus comes under Article 21 of the Constitution. The bench was headed by the then Chief Justice J S Khehar.
