R. M. Lodha (born 28 September 1949)
is a former
Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...
. Before being elevated to the Supreme Court, he served as the chief justice of
Patna High Court
The Patna High Court is the High Court of the state of Bihar. It was established on 9 February 1916 and later affiliated under the Government of India Act 1915.
The court is based in Patna, the administrative capital of the state of Bihar, ...
. He has also served as a judge in
Rajasthan High Court
The Rajasthan High Court is the High Court of the state of Rajasthan. It was established on 29 August 1949 under the ''Rajasthan High Court Ordinance, 1949''.
The seat of the court is at Jodhpur. The court has a sanctioned judge strength of 50. ...
and
Bombay High Court
The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...
. On 14 July 2015, the Supreme Court committee headed by RM Lodha suspended the owners of
Rajasthan Royals
Rajasthan Royals (often abbreviated as RR) are a franchise cricket team based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 as one of the initial eight IPL franchises, the team is based at the Sawai Ma ...
and
Chennai Super Kings
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 2008, the team plays its home matches at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The team is owned by India ...
from the
Indian Premier League
The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
tournament for a period of two years for alleged involvement in betting.
Early life
Rajendra Mal Lodha was born in an
Oswal Jain family to Justice S K Mal Lodha, a former Judge of Rajasthan High Court. He was born in
Jodhpur
Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the Ki ...
, Rajasthan.
He completed his
BSc
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
and
LLB
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...
at the
Jodhpur University.
Career
In February 1973, he enrolled with the Bar Council of Rajasthan at Jodhpur. He moved to
Jaipur
Jaipur (; Hindi Language, Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Rajasthan. , the city had a pop ...
in 1977 on formation of Jaipur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court.
He was appointed
Central Government
A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...
standing counsel at the Rajasthan High Court in 1990. On 31 January 1994, Lodha was elevated as a permanent judge of Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur. On 16 February 1994, he was transferred to Bombay High Court and served till 2007. He resumed office as a judge of Rajasthan High Court on 2 February 2007. On 13 May 2008, he was elevated as the Chief Justice of the
Patna High Court
The Patna High Court is the High Court of the state of Bihar. It was established on 9 February 1916 and later affiliated under the Government of India Act 1915.
The court is based in Patna, the administrative capital of the state of Bihar, ...
.
Lodha was appointed the Chief Justice of India succeeding
P Sathasivam
Palanisamy Sathasivam (born 27 April 1949) is an Indian judge who served as the 40th Chief Justice of India, holding the office from 2013 to 2014. On retirement from his judicial career, Sathasivam was appointed the 21st Governor of Kerala fr ...
on 11 April and assumed charge on 27 April 2014. Justice Lodha said that infusing greater transparency in the appointment of judges and initiating steps to bring down the backlog of 33,000,000 cases will be among his priorities.
Other positions held
These include:
* Chairman,
State Judicial Academy, Rajasthan
* Executive Chairman,
National Legal Services Authority
National Legal Services Authority of India (NALSA) was formed on 9 November 1995 under the authority of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987. Its purpose is to provide free legal services to eligible candidates (defined in Sec. 12 of the Act) ...
* Chairman, General Council,
Gujarat National Law University
The Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) is a pre-eminent public law school and a National Law University established under the ''Gujarat National Law University Act, 2003'' in the state of Gujarat. The university is located at Gandhinagar ...
,
Gandhinagar
Gandhinagar (, ) is the capital of the state of Gujarat in India. Gandhinagar is located approximately 23 km north of Ahmedabad, on the west central point of the Industrial corridor between Delhi, the political capital of India, and Mu ...
* President,
Supreme Court Middle Income Group Legal Aid Society
* Chairperson, Advisory Committee,
National Court Management Systems
* Chancellor,
National Law School of India University
The National Law School of India University (NLSIU or simply NLS) is a public law school and a National Law University located in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was the first National Law University to be established in India as well as one of the f ...
,
Bengaluru
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
* Chancellor,
West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences
The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS or NUJS) is a premier public law school in India, also known as Columbia of East, and is an elite National Law University located in Bidhannagar, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. In ...
,
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
* Chancellor,
Chanakya National Law University
Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) is a public law school and a National Law University in Patna, Bihar, India. It was established in 2006 by the Government of Bihar (Bihar Act 24 of 2006) as a public university dedicated to the field ...
,
Patna
Patna (
), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...
Further reading
*
References
External links
Profile page for Chief Justice of India Hon'ble Mr. Justice RM Lodha
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lodha, Rajendra Mal
1949 births
Living people
20th-century Indian judges
20th-century Indian lawyers
21st-century Indian judges
21st-century Indian lawyers
Chief justices of India
Chief Justices of the Patna High Court
Indian Jains
Judges of the Bombay High Court
Judges of the Rajasthan High Court
Justices of the Supreme Court of India
People from Jodhpur
Rajasthani people