Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday announced the appointment of Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud as the Chief Justice of India effective November 9.
After current Chief Justice UU Lalit retires, the President of India has chosen Justice Chandrachud as the next CJI who will become the 50th in the chair.
Justice Chandrachud was suggested by outgoing Chief Justice UU Lalit as his replacement on October 11. As Chief Justice of India, Justice Chandrachud will hold office till November 10, 2024, serving one of the longer periods in recent memory.
The father of Justice Chandrachud, Justice YV Chandrachud, served as India’s 16th Chief Justice from 2 February 1978 until 11 July 1985.
Justice Chandrachud is renowned for his liberal and progressive rulings, the most recent of which upheld unmarried women’s right to an abortion up to 24 weeks in gestation. He was a member of the Constitution Benches that oversaw the decriminalisation of consenting homosexuality and the recognition of the right to privacy under Article 21.
He was a member of the group that supported women of all ages having the freedom to join the Sabarimala shrine. The five-judge panel that rendered a decision in the Ayodhya-Babri Masjid dispute had Justice Chandrachud as a member.
On May 13, 2016, Justice Chandrachud was appointed to the Supreme Court. Prior to that, beginning on October 31, 2013, he served as Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court. His judicial career began on March 29, 2000, when he was appointed to the Bombay High Court as a judge.
Prior to being named a judge, he served as India’s Additional Solicitor General from 1998 till the present. The Bombay High Court named him a Senior Advocate in 1998.
Justice Chandrachud graduated from St Stephen’s College in New Delhi with a BA in Economics with Honors. He graduated from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University’s LLB programme, and Harvard Law School, in the United States, where he also earned his LLM and Doctor of Jurisprudential Sciences (SJD) degrees.