Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde was on Monday administered oath as the 47th Chief Justice of India by President Ram Nath Kovind. Justice Bobde (63) succeeds Justice Ranjan Gogoi who demitted office on Sunday.
Justice Bobde will have a tenure of around 17 months and would demit office on April 23, 2021. Hailing from a family of lawyers from Maharashtra, he is the son of eminent senior advocate Arvind Shriniwas Bobde. Justice Bobde has been chosen following the rule of seniority and his name was recommended by Justice Gogoi in a letter to the Centre.
CJI Bobde, in an interview to PTI, had said that he believes people’s reputations cannot be sacrificed just to satisfy the desire of citizens to know. He would prefer a conservative approach on the issue of disclosing the Collegium’s entire deliberations on rejection of names for appointment in the higher judiciary.
On the issue of huge vacancies of judges in courts across the country and lack of judicial infrastructure, Bobde wishes to take to the “logical end” the steps taken by his predecessor Gogoi. Justice Gogoi had taken note of vacancies and lack of infrastructure in courts and has been monitoring them by issuing directions to all states and respective High Courts to do the needful.
A five-judge constitution bench, of which Justice Bobde was also part, rendered a unanimous verdict to put the curtains down on the vexatious Ayodhya land dispute, which was pending in courts since 1950. A nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by the then CJI J.S. Khehar and which included Justice Bobde held unanimously in August 2017 that the Right to Privacy was a constitutionally protected fundamental right in India.
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.
Born on April 24, 1956 in Nagpur, Maharashtra, 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. Justice Bobde 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. He was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on April 12, 2013.
