Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde was sworn-in as the 47th Chief Justice of India on Monday. He was administered the oath of office of the Chief Justice of India by President Ram Nath Kovind.
Outgoing Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on October 18 had recommended Justice Bobde, the second senior-most judge of the apex court, as his successor.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and former CJIs were some of the people present at the oath taking ceremony.
Justice Bobde will serve as CJI for around 18 months and retire on April 23, 2021. Justice Gogoi, the 46th Chief Justice of India, took charge on October 3, 2018 and demitted office on Sunday.
Born in Nagpur on April 24, 1956, he completed his graduation and obtained a law degree from Nagpur University. He was enrolled on the roll of the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1978 and was designated as Senior Advocate in 1998.
His career as judge began on March 29, 2000 when he was appointed as Additional Judge in the Bombay High Court, and he rose to become Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on October 16, 2012.
He was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court on April 12, 2013.
Justice Bobde was part of the five-judge constitution bench hearing the longest running Ayodhya land dispute case. He was part of the in-house panel which has handled the controversial case related to allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice Gogoi, and gave him a clean chit, saying "no substance" was found in the allegation levelled by a former employee.
He was also on the benches that gave the judgments in the Puttaswamy case (which held that privacy was a fundamental right) and when the sale and stockpiling of fireworks was banned in Delhi in 2016 due to the pollution.
Justice Bobde is reportedly the Chancellor of Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai, and the Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur. He is also the executive chairman of the National Legal Service Authority.
With IANS inputs