Sober demeanour, patient, landmark judgements: Who is Justice Lalit, next CJI of India

New Delhi, Aug 04: Chief Justice of India, N V Ramana today, August 4 recommended the name of Justice U U Lalit as the next CJI.

Justice Lalit is the only judge after Justice S M Sikri to be elevated from the bar who goes on to become the CJI. Justice Lalit was appointed judge of the Supreme Court in August 2014. Justice Sikri was the CJI between 1971 and 1973.

Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was born on November 9 1957. He would be serving as the 49th CJI for a period of seventy four days.

Justice Lalit was born into the family of U R Lalit, a former additional judge of the Bombay High Court, Nagpur Bench. Prior to his elevation he was practicing as a senior counsel in the Supreme Court since 1986.

Between 1986 and 1992, he worked with former Attorney General of India, Soli Sorabjee.

On April 29 2004, he was designated as a senior counsel of the Supreme Court.

Some of the good qualities about the next CJI that many reports have mentioned are his high reputation, preparation, patience and sober demeanour while arguing cases. In 2011 a Supreme Court Bench of Justices G S Singvi and A K Ganguly appointed Lalit as the special public prosecutor for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 2G Spectrum cases. The Bench said that it is in the interest of a fair prosecution of the case while adding that Lalit is eminently suitable.

On January 10 2019, Justice Lalit recuses himself from the Bench hearing the Ayodhya dispute case stating that he had appeared for erstwhile chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan Singh in a connected case.

He has since been involved in delivery of several landmark judgements of the apex court.

One of the path-breaking verdicts was the August 2017 judgement by a five-judge constitution bench which by a 3-2 majority ruled the practice of divorce through instant 'triple talaq' as "void", "illegal" and "unconstitutional".

While then Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice S Abdul Nazeer were in favour of putting on hold the judgement for six months and asking the government to come out with a law to that effect, Justices Kurian Joseph, R F Nariman and U U Lalit held the practice as violative of the Constitution. Justices Kehar, Joseph and Nariman have since retired, a PTI report said.

In another important judgement, a bench headed by Justice Lalit had ruled the erstwhile royal family of Travancore has the management right over the historic Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala, one of the richest shrines, holding that the rule of "heritability must get attached to a right of Shebait" (servitor) of the temple.

The bench had allowed the appeal of the legal heirs of Uthradam Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the younger brother of the last ruler, Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, setting aside the Kerala High Court's 2011 verdict which directed the state government to set up a trust to take control of the management and assets of the temple.

A bench headed by Justice U U Lalit had ruled that touching sexual parts of a child's body or any act involving physical contact with 'sexual intent' amounts to 'sexual assault' under section 7 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act as the most important ingredient is sexual intent and not skin-to-skin contact.

Quashing the controversial 'skin-to-skin' judgements of the Bombay High Court in two cases under the POCSO Act, the bench had said the high court erred in holding that there was no offence since there was no direct 'skin-to-skin' contact with sexual intent.

The high court had held that no offence of sexual assault under the POCSO Act was made out if there was no direct skin-to-skin contact between an accused and victim.

Born on November 9, 1957, Justice Lalit had enrolled as an advocate in June 1983 and practised in the Bombay High Court till December 1985.

He shifted his practice to Delhi in January 1986, and in April 2004, he was designated as a senior advocate by the apex court.

He was appointed a special public prosecutor for the CBI to conduct trial in the 2G spectrum allocation case. Justice Lalit is due to retire on November 8, 2022.