Justice Dhananjaya Chandrachud sworn in as 50th Chief Justice of India

New Delhi:Justice Dr Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chadrachud was on Wednesday sworn-in as the 50th Chief Justice of India by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Justice Chandrachud will continue to remain in office for two years and one day, and will demit the office on November 10, 2024.

History was made as Justice Chadrachud took oath as the 50th CJI at 10am, as Chandrachuds are the only father-son duo to have reached the position of the CJI.

His father, Justice YV Chandrachud was the 16th CJI, who was in office from February 22, 1978 to July 11, 1985, and served as the longest serving CJI till date for a tenure of more than seven years.

CJI Chandrachud took over the reins from his predecessor CJI Uday Umesh Lalit, who held the top post of the Indian judiciary for a brief tenure of 74 days from August 27 till November 8.

CJI Dr Dhananjaya Yashwant Chandrachud profile

Known for upholding constitutional rights and freedom of speech and expression, and upholds the rights of the LGBT class, CJI-Designate Justice Dr Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chadrachud, today succeeded as the 50th CJI, after incumbent CJI Uday Umesh Lalit, demited the office yesterday on November 08.

Justice Chandrachud’s contemporary, Justice (Retired) Amar Saran, who was colleague in the Allahabad High Court, during his Allahabad High Court days from 2013, to May 12, 2016 -- said that hardly anyone knows this fact that Justice Chandrachud had adopted two daughters, (besides his own children) as their mother belong to very poor and these two girls are special children. "Justice Chandrachud is a good human being, apart from being a competent and dynamic and superb judge," Justice (Retd) Saran said.

"Now-a-days, these two special children, whom Justice Chadrachud adopted, grow up beautifully and they are doing very well. It is an extraordinary thing, a judge is doing, besides, delivering his judgment," Justice Saran said.

Justice Chandrachud would have a tenure of two years and would continue to hold the office till November 10, 2024.

Justice Lalit retired yesterday as the CJI after a brief tenure of 74 days.

Justice Chandrachud’s father, Justice YV Chandrachud was appointed to the post of the 16th CJI in 1978 and he retired in 1985, serving the longest tenure of seven years at the post till date.

History was today made, when Justice Chadrachud took oath as the 50th CJI, as this will be the only father-son duo to have reached the position of the CJI so far in the history of Supreme Court's history.

Justice Chandrachud completed his LLB at Delhi University. He then studied at Harvard University after receiving the prestigious Inlaks Scholarship. At Harvard, he completed his Masters in Law (LLM) and Doctorate in Juridical Sciences (SJD).

He practised as an advocate in the Supreme Court and the High Courts of Gujarat, Calcutta, Allahabad, Madhya Pradesh, and Delhi before becoming a judge of the Bombay High Court.

He appeared before the Company Law Board (CLB), the Monopolies & Restricted Trade Practices (MRTP) Commission, the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) Board and National and many State Commissions.

Justice Chandrachud was designated as Senior Advocate by the Bombay High Court in 1998. He served as the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) of India from 1998 to 2000. As an advocate, Justice Chandrachud’s most significant cases have involved constitutional and administrative law, the rights of HIV+ workers, religious and linguistic minority rights, and labour and industrial laws.

On 29 March 2000, he was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court. He took oath as the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court on 31 October 2013.

He had delivered amny Notable judgements. In Justice K.S. Puttaswamy case, Justice Chandrachud, as a sole dissenter, held that the Aadhaar was unconstitutionally passed as a Money Bill. He also reviewed arguments on specific provisions of the Act which affected an individual’s privacy, dignity and autonomy.

He wrote a separate concurring opinion in the famous Navtej Johar case, that decriminalised homosexuality, and section 377 (Unnatural Sex) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and made same-sex intercourse legal. He held section 377 to be an ‘anachronistic colonial law,’ which violated the fundamental rights to equality, freedom of expression, life and privacy. He added that this could only be seen as a first step in guaranteeing LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) individuals their constitutional rights.

Justice Chandrachud’s concurring opinion in Shafin Jahan v Ashokan K.M case, upheld Hadiya’s choice of religion and marriage partner. Hadiya had converted to Islam and married the petitioner Shafin Jahan, at which point her parents alleged that she had been brainwashed. Justice Chandrachud reiterated that an adult’s right to make decisions in marriage or religion falls within her zone of privacy.

In the Sabarimala temple case, he held that the exclusion of women between the ages of 10-50 years from Sabarimala Temple violated the constitutional morality. He further added that it subverted their autonomy, liberty, and dignity. Uniquely, he held that the custom also violated Article 17, which prohibits untouchability, as it assigns a notion of impurity to women.

He dissented in Romila Thapar case regarding the arrest of 5 human rights activists for allegedly instigating violence at Bhima Koregaon and participating in a criminal conspiracy against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He stated that the issue was whether the arrests violated the accused of their fundamental rights to free expression and personal liberty guaranteed by Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution. He suggested that a Special Investigation Team probe the arrest of the activists.(UNI)