Sharad Arvind Bobde (born 24 April 1956) is an Indian judge who served as the 47th Chief Justice of India from 18 November 2019 to 23 April 2021. He is a former Chief Justice of the

Madhya Pradesh High Court The Madhya Pradesh High Court is the High Court of the state of Madhya Pradesh which is located in Jabalpur. It was established as the Nagpur High Court on 2 January 1936 by Letters Patent dated 2 January 1936, issued under Section 108 the '' ...

. He is also serving as the Chancellor of

Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai (MNLU Mumbai) is a National Law University located at Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, and is one of most prestigious law schools in India. MNLU Mumbai offers a five-year integrated B.A LL.B.(Hons.) progr ...

and

Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur Maharashtra National Law University Nagpur (MNLU) (also known as National Law University, Nagpur or NLU Nagpur) is a National Law University and a public law school established by the government through the Maharashtra National Law University ...

. He had a tenure of eight years in 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 ...

and retired on 23 April 2021. On 24 April 2021, N. V. Ramana succeeded him as the CJI.

Family and early life

Bobde comes from a

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...

-based family. His great-grandfather Ramachandra Pant Bobde, a Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin was a noted lawyer in

Chandrapur Chandrapur (earlier known as ''Chanda'', the official name until 1964) is a city and a municipal corporation in Chandrapur district, Maharashtra state, India. It is the district headquarters of Chandrapur district. Chandrapur is a fort city ...

(erstwhile Chanda) between 1880 and 1900. The family later moved to

. His grandfather Shrinivas Ramachandra Bobde was also a lawyer. Bobde's father Arvind Shrinivas Bobde was advocate-general of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

in 1980 and 1985. Bobde's elder brother late Vinod Arvind Bobde was a senior Supreme Court lawyer and a constitutional expert.

Education

Bobde did his schooling at St. Francis De'Sales High School, Nagpur. He completed his graduation from St. Francis De Sales College, Nagpur and studied law at Dr. Ambedkar Law College,

Nagpur University Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), formerly Nagpur University, is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Nagpur, Maharashtra. It is one of India's oldest universities, as well as th ...

Career

He enrolled as an advocate on 13 September 1978, practiced at the Nagpur Bench of

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 ...

with appearances before the principal seat at Bombay and before the

and became Senior Advocate in 1998. Bobde was appointed an additional judge of the

on 29 March 2000, and subsequently promoted to Chief Justice of the

on 16 October 2012 before being elevated as a judge of the

on 12 April 2013. He was appointed the 47th Chief Justice of India on 18 November 2019, succeeding

Ranjan Gogoi Ranjan is a name. 'Ran' means Battle and 'jan' means public, in olden days this name was given to generous kings who fight battles for the rights of people. Ranjan may also refer to: *Ranjan (actor) (1918–1983) (real name Ramanarayana Venkataram ...

. He became the only CJI to not recommend a single name of a judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court of India, in his tenure of 1 year and 5 months. He wrote 68 judgments as judge on the Supreme Court. However, he sat on the bench for 547 cases. He has effectively written 8.5 judgments per year. The subject he has written the judgments on in the Supreme Court is Criminal Law, with 29 judgments.

Notable judgements and opinions

Ayodhya dispute

Justice Bobde was part of the five-judge constitutional bench which heard and delivered the judgment dated November 9, 2019 on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case. The bench unanimously ordered the construction of a Hindu Temple in the disputed site, while ruling that the

Demolition of the Babri Masjid The demolition of the Babri Masjid was illegally carried out on 6 December 1992 by a large group of activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organisations. The 16th-century Babri Masjid in the city of Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, had ...

and the 1949 desecration of the

Babri Masjid Babri Masjid (IAST: Bābarī Masjid; meaning ''Mosque of Babur'') was a mosque in Ayodhya, India, at a site believed by many Hindus to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Rama. It has been a focus of dispute between the Hindu and Muslim communi ...

was in violation of law.

Aadhaar

A three judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, comprising Bobde,

Jasti Chelameswar Jasti Chelameswar (born 23 June 1953) is the former Judge of Supreme Court of India. He retired on 22 June 2018 as the second most senior Supreme court judge. Earlier, he was the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court and Gauhati High Court. He ...

, and Chokkalingam Nagappan, ratified an earlier order of the Supreme Court and clarified that no Indian citizen without an

Aadhaar Aadhaar ( hi, आधार, ādhār, lit=base, foundation, bn, আধার) is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by the citizens of India and resident foreign nationals who have spent over 182 days in twelve ...

card can be deprived of basic services and government subsidies.

Anti-abortion

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, comprising Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao in 2017, rejected a woman's plea seeking termination of her foetus, based on the medical board's report that the 26-week-old foetus had a chance of survival.

Religious feelings

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, comprising Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao in 2017, upheld the ban by the Karnataka Government of a book by Mate Mahadevi on the grounds that it outraged the religious feelings of Lord Basavanna's followers.

Environment

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, comprising Bobde,

T. S. Thakur Tirath Singh Thakur (born 4 January 1952) is an Indian jurist who served as the 43rd Chief Justice of India (CJI) from 3 December 2015 to 4 January 2017. Before being elevated to the Supreme Court, he served as the Chief Justice of Punjab an ...

and

Arjan Kumar Sikri Arjan Kumar Sikri (born 7 March 1954) is an eminent jurist and a former judge of the Supreme Court of India. He was sworn in as a Supreme Court judge on 12 April 2013. Earlier, he had served as the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High ...

in 2016, in relation to the extreme air pollution in the National Capital Region, suspended the sales of fire crackers in the region.

Marital rape

While commenting on

marital rape Marital rape or spousal rape is the act of sexual intercourse with one's spouse without the spouse's consent. The lack of consent is the essential element and need not involve physical violence. Marital rape is considered a form of domestic vi ...

, Bobde remarked that when a man and a woman live as husband and wife, that act of sexual intercourse between them could not be called rape.

Rape of a minor

Bobde was hearing an appeal against anticipatory bail given to a person accused of raping a minor. During oral arguments Bobde asked the defendant "Will you marry her?". Following this exchange, women's rights and progressive groups called Bobde to step down for asking the accused rapist to marry the victim to avoid punishment.

Appointment of High Court Judges

A three-judge bench of CJI Bobde and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Surya Kant issued binding directions to streamline the appointment of high court judges, within specified timelines.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bobde, Sharad 1956 births Living people 20th-century Indian judges 21st-century Indian judges Chief Justices of the Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief justices of India Judges of the Bombay High Court Justices of the Supreme Court of India Marathi people Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University alumni Scholars from Nagpur