New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu will administer the oath of office to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Saturday. Justice Lalit will take oath as the 49th CJI.
CJI Lalit will have a brief tenure of less than three months. He will demit office on November 8. Speaking at a function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) to bid farewell to outgoing CJI N V Ramana on Friday, Justice Lalit highlighted three areas he intends to work on during his 74-day tenure as the CJI and said he would strive hard to ensure at least one Constitution bench is functioning in the Supreme Court throughout the year.
His other two priority areas are — listing of cases for hearing in the SC and mentioning urgent matters.
Justice Lalit said he has always believed that the role of the top court is to lay down law with clarity and the best possible way to do it is to have larger benches as early as possible so that issues get clarified immediately.
“So, we will strive hard to say that yes, we will always have at least one Constitution bench functioning all throughout the year,” he said.
When Justice Lalit takes oath as the CJI, three generations of his family will be present at the ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
His 90-year-old father Umesh Ranganath Lalit, who was a High Court judge, will be there. Justice Lalit’s wife Amita Lalit, who runs a school in Noida, and their two sons Harshad and Shreeyash will also be present. Both sons studied engineering, but Shreeyash later turned to law. His wife Raveena is also a lawyer. Harshad is a researcher and lives in the US with wife Radhika.
Justice Lalit’s grandfather Ranganath Lalit was a lawyer in Solapur.
