From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India N V Ramana has recommended the name of Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, No 2 in the Supreme Court, to be his successor.
He sent the recommendation Wednesday night to Law Minister Kiren Rijiju and handed over a copy of the recommendation to Justice Lalit on Thursday.
Lalit, who assumes the charge on CJI Ramana’s retirement on August 26, however, will have the tenure of just six weeks as he is also due for retirement on November 8. The next in the line after him is Dr Justice D Y Chandrachud, whose innings will be of over two years.
Justice Lalit is a direct appointee as a Supreme Court judge on August 13, 2014 from the ranks of the senior advocates he joined in April 2004. He is the only judge after Justice S M Sikri to be elevated from the bar to become the CJI. He is known for sober demeanour and patience.
He practiced in Mumbai for over two years from June 1983 to December 1985 and then shifted to Delhi in January 1986. He was born in the family of Justice U R Lalit, a former additional judge in the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court.
The most important case he handled as the senior advocate was the appointment by the top court as a special public prosecutor for CBI to conduct trials in all 2G matters.
As an apex court judge, Lalit’s landmark hearings include the “triple talaq” case. He was part of a five-judge bench that by a 3-2 majority in 2017 ruled that the practice was “illegal” and “unconstitutional”.
He recused himself from the Ayodhya hearing because he had appeared for former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh in a case related to the Babri Masjid demolition.
Last year, a bench led by Lalit had reversed the Bombay High Court’s controversial “skin to skin” ruling. The High Court had held that “skin-to-skin contact” between an accused person and a child was required to make a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The Supreme Court had said the judgement would set a dangerous precedent.
In July this year, a bench comprising Justices UU Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and PS Narasimha had sentenced fugitive tycoon Vijay Mallya to four month jail in contempt of court case. Mallya was held guilty of contempt for disbursing $40 million to his family members in violation of the court orders.
