Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde Takes Over As The 47th Chief Justice of India

NAGPUR born Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde on Monday, November 18, was administered oath as the 47th Chief Justice of India by President Ram Nath Kovind at a simple ceremony in iconic Rashtrapati Bhawan. He is  the eighth (8th) CJI whose parent High Court is the Bombay High Court. resident Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath to CJI Bobde who hold this august  office till April 23, 2021  when he will turn 65. The outgoing Chief Justice of India, Justice Ranjan Gogoi had recommended Justice Bobde, who was then the second senior-most Judge at the Supreme Court, to be his successor With Justice Bobde taking over the office of CJI, the Supreme Court Collegium also sees a rejig with Justice R Banumathi entering the five-judge Collegium, only the second-ever woman Judge to be part of the Collegium. Justice Bobde will have Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra (till 2/9/20), Rohinton Nariman and R Banumathi (till 19/7/20) as part of the Collegium. Justices UU Lalit (from 20/7/20) and AM Khanwilkar (from 3/9/20) will also be part of his Collegium. Justice Bobde becomes the eighth Judge hailing from the Bombay High Court to occupy the chair of the Chief Justice of India.He had  studied law in Nagpur University. His ather  was  Maharashtra Advocate General Arvind Bobde and brother of veteran lawyer Vinod Bobde, who passed away in 2016, Justice Bobde was enrolled with the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1978. He practiced at the Nagpur Bench and made appearances at the Principal Bench at Bombay, before practicing at the Supreme Court of India for over 21 years. He was designated as Senior Advocate in 1998.He was elevated as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court in 2000, before being appointed as Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in October 2012. Subsequently, he was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court in April 2013(with inputs  from Bar & Bench).

NAGPUR born Sharad Arvind Bobde  was on Monday, 18 November 2019 administered oath as  Chief Justice of  India  by President Ram Nath Kovind at the iconic Darbar Hall of the  Rashtrapati Bhavan. He is the  47th Chief Justice of India after Justice Ranjan Gogoi superannuated   on November 17.

He has delivered judgements on several crucial issues and was part of the recent historic Ayodhya verdict. Bobde, 63, succeeds Justice Ranjan Gogoi from Assam .He took oath in English in the name of God .Justice Bobde will have a tenure of over 17 months as the CJI and is due to retire on April 23, 2021.Soon after taking the oath, he sought the blessings of his mother by touching her feet. She was brought to the president house on a stretcher. His father was Arvind Shriniwas Bobde, a senior lawyer who was also  Advocate General of Maharashtra and  his elder brother Vinode Bobde   was a senior Lawyer of the  apex court  .Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several senior ministers were present at the oath-taking ceremony. Former vice president Hamid Ansari and former Prime Minister Man Mohan  Singh were also there. Besides, former chief justices of the Supreme Court, including R M Lodha, T S Thakur and J S Kehar, also attended the ceremony. His predecessor Ranjan Gogoi walked shook hands with them. Justice Bobde’s name was recommended by Justice Gogoi in a letter to the Centre. In an interview to PTI after being appointed as CJI last month, Bobde had said people’s reputation cannot be sacrificed just to satisfy the desire of citizens to know. He would prefer a conservative approach to the issue of disclosing the Collegium’s entire deliberations on rejection of names for appointment in the higher judiciary, added. Asked about huge vacancies of judges in courts across the country and lack of judicial infrastructure, Justice Bobde said that he wishes to take to the “logical end” the steps taken by his predecessor Gogoi. Bobde was also part of a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court that had held unanimously in August 2017 that the Right to Privacy was a constitutionally protected fundamental right in India. The CJI then was J S Khehar. Justice Bobde was part of the three-judge bench which in 2015 clarified that no citizen of India without an Aadhaar card can be denied basic services and government services. Recently, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Bobde directed the Committee of Administrators (CoA) headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai, appointed by it for the purpose of running the BCCI administration, to demit office paving the way for elected members to run the affairs of the cricket board. Justice Bobde completed Bachelor of Arts and LLB degrees from Nagpur University. He was enrolled as an advocate of the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1978.He practised law at the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court with appearances at Bombay before the Principal Seat and before the Supreme Court for over 21 years.He was designated as senior advocate in 1998.Justice Bobde was elevated to the Bombay High Court on March 29, 2000, as Additional Judge and sworn in as Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on October 16, 2012.