Justice UU Lalit's name recommended for next Chief Justice of India

"Hon’ble Chief Justice of India Justice N V Ramana today recommended the name of Hon’ble Justice Uday Umesh Lalit as his successor to the Hon’ble Minister for Law and Justice," a Supreme Court official said.

CJI Ramana personally handed over a copy of the letter of recommendation dated 3 August to Justice Lalit on Thursday morning, the official added.

Law minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday evening had formally written to CJI Ramana requesting him to recommend the name of his successor.

Justice Ramana, who took over as the 48th CJI on 24 April 2021, is due to retire on 26 August.

Justice Lalit would take over as the 49th CJI on 27 August 2022. He would retire on 8 November 2022 and would have a tenure of less than two-and-a-half-months.

Generally, the centre writes to the CJI requesting him to recommend his successor a month before his retirement. However, this time around the process was delayed.

As per convention, the CJI recommends the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as his successor. Only twice, it was not followed – Justice AN Ray was appointed the CJI on 25 April 1973 superseding three senior-most judges and Justice MH Beg was appointed the CJI on 29 January 1977 superseding Justice HR Khanna.

Born on 9 November 1957, Justice Lalit got enrolled as an advocate in June 1983 and practised in the Bombay High Court till December 1985 before shifting his practice to Delhi in January 1986. He was designated as senior advocate by the Supreme Court in April 2004 and appeared as amicus curiae in several important cases and was appointed Special Public Prosecutor for the CBI to conduct trial in all 2G matters under the orders of the Supreme Court.

Justice Lalit has been part of landmark judgments, including on triple talaq.

He was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court on 13 August 2014 directly from the Bar.