Uday Umesh Lalit (born 9 November 1957) is an Indian lawyer & former Supreme Court Judge, who served as the 49th
Chief Justice of India
The chief justice of India (IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation w ...
. Previously, he has served as a judge of
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 ...
. Prior to his elevation as a judge, he practised as a
senior counsel
The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel (post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdicti ...
at the Supreme Court.
Justice Lalit is one of the six
senior counsel
The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel (post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdicti ...
s who have been directly elevated to the Supreme Court.
Family and education
Lalit was born in
Solapur
Solapur () is a city located in the south-western region of the Indian state of Maharashtra, close to its border with Karnataka. Solapur is located on major highway, rail routes between Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad, with a branch line ...
to the family of U.R. Lalit, a former additional judge of the
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 ...
Nagpur bench and a
senior counsel
The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel (post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdicti ...
practising at the Supreme Court of India. His family hails from
Konkan
The Konkan ( kok, कोंकण) or Kokan () is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, running from Damaon in the north to Karwar in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau in the east. The hinterland ...
but moved to Solapur when his grandfather, Ranganath Lalit, began practicing law.
Ranganath Lalit chaired two separate civic receptions when Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru visited Solapur.
He is married to Amita Lalit.
Lalit attended
Haribhai Deokaran High School
Haribhai Deokaran High School (HDHS) is a public Marathi and Semi-English Medium School in Solapur, Maharashtra, India. HDHS consists of a high school from Grade V to Grade X and an Arts, Commerce and Science Junior college. The high school ...
in Solapur and is a law graduate from
Government Law College, Mumbai
The Government Law College, Mumbai, (GLC Mumbai), founded in 1855, is the one of the oldest law schools in Asia. The college, affiliated to the University of Mumbai, is run by the Government of Maharashtra.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak ,Pratibha Pa ...
.
Career
Lalit enrolled with the
Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa
Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa is the regulatory and statutorily representative body for lawyers practicing law in the states of Maharashtra and Goa, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It was constituted as p ...
as an advocate in June 1983. He started his practice with advocate M.A. Rane, who was considered a proponent of the radical humanist school of thought who believed that social work was as important as building a solid legal practice.
He shifted his practice to Delhi in 1985 and joined the chamber of senior advocate
Pravin H. Parekh
Pravin H Parekh is a senior counsel practising at Supreme Court of India. He has been president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of India six times. In 2012, Parekh was conferred with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian honour.
Ref ...
. From 1986 to 1992, Lalit worked with former
Attorney General for India
The Attorney General for India is the Indian government's chief legal advisor, and is its chief advocate in the courts. They are appointed by the President of India at the instance of the Union Cabinet under Article 76(1) of the Constitution an ...
,
Soli Sorabjee
Soli Jehangir Sorabjee, AM (9 March 193030 April 2021) was an Indian jurist who served as Attorney-General for India from 1989 to 1990, and again from 1998 to 2004. In 2002, he received the Padma Vibhushan for his defence of the freedom of exp ...
.
On 3 May 1992, Lalit qualified and was registered as an
Advocate-on-Record Advocate-on-Record is an advocate who is entitled under the Order IV of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 (previously Order IV of the Supreme Court of India Rules, 1966), framed by the Supreme Court of India under Article 145 of the Constitution, to ...
at the Supreme Court. On 29 April 2004, Lalit was designated as a senior advocate of the Supreme Court.
In 2011, a Supreme Court bench of Justices
G. S. Singhvi
G.S. Singhvi (born 12 December 1948) is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. He retired on 11 December 2013.
Early life and education
Singhvi was born at Jodhpur, Rajasthan on 12 December 1948. He graduated in 1968 from Jodhpur Un ...
and
Asok Kumar Ganguly
Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly is an Indian jurist. He served as the Chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission and as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India who delivered judgements in some high-profile cases like the 2G spectrum case.
...
appointed Lalit as the
special public prosecutor for the
Central Bureau of Investigation
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governmen ...
(CBI) in the
2G spectrum case
The 2G spectrum case was a political controversy in which politicians and private officials of the United Progressive Alliance coalition government India were involved in selling or allotting 122 2G spectrum licenses on conditions that provi ...
s, stating that "in the interest of a fair prosecution of the case, appointment of UU Lalit is eminently suitable". His professional strengths are described as 'thoroughness with the case, patience in explaining legal questions and the sober demeanour in presenting the case before the bench.
As a Supreme Court judge
In July 2014, the Supreme court collegium headed by then Chief Justice of India
Rajendra Mal Lodha
R. M. Lodha (born 28 September 1949) is a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. Before being elevated to the Supreme Court, he served as the chief justice of Patna High Court. He has also served as a judge in Rajasthan High Court ...
recommended his elevation to the Supreme Court as a judge. He was appointed as a judge on 13 August 2014 and became only the sixth lawyer to be directly elevated to the Supreme Court.
In 2017, he was part of the five-judge bench in the case against the unconstitutional nature of
triple talaq
Divorce in Islam can take a variety of forms, some initiated by the husband and some initiated by the wife. The main traditional legal categories are ''talaq'' ( repudiation), ''khulʿ'' (mutual divorce or ransom divorce) Historically, the rules ...
, then being practiced by Indian Muslim men to divorce their wives by uttering the word "talaq" (divorce) three times. Along with Lalit,
J S Khehar,
Kurian Joseph
Kurian Joseph (born 30 November 1953) is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India. Previously, he has served as Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court and Judge of Kerala High Court.
Early life
Kurian Joseph was born on 30 November ...
,
R F Nariman, and Abdul Nazeer delivered the verdict banning the practice.
On 10 January 2019, Justice Lalit recused himself from a five-judge bench constituted to hear the
Ayodhya dispute
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical, and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The issues revolve around the control of a site traditionally regarded among Hindus to be the ...
case. His appearance for the erstwhile Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
Kalyan Singh
Kalyan Singh (5 January 1932 – 21 August 2021) was an Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He served twice as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as a Member of Parliament. He was the Chief minister of Utt ...
in a 'connected case' was brought to the notice of the court by
Rajeev Dhavan
Rajeev Dhavan (born 4 August 1946) is an Indian Senior Advocate, a human rights activist, and a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists. He is the author or co-author of numerous books on legal and human rights topics, and is a r ...
, and the court in its order noted the 'disinclination' of Justice Lalit to participate in the matter. He has also recused himself from multiple other high-profile cases.
In May 2021, he was part of a bench which denied bail to
2018 Bhima Koregaon violence
The 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence refers to violence during an annual celebratory gathering on 1 January 2018 at Bhima Koregaon to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. The violence and stone pelting by crowd on the gatheri ...
accused activist
Gautam Navlakha
Gautam Navlakha () is an Indian self-proclaimed human rights activist and journalist. He has written on left-wing extremism and is a critic of army and state atrocities in Kashmir. He is a member of People's Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi ...
.
He was part of the two-judge bench, along with
Indu Malhotra
Indu Malhotra is a retired judge and senior counsel of the Supreme Court of India. She was the second woman to be designated as Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court. She was the first woman advocate to be elevated as a judge of the Supreme C ...
, that upheld the
Travancore royal family's right to administer the
Padmanabhaswamy Temple
The Shree Padmanabhaswamy Temple is a Hindu temple located in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of the state of Kerala, India. The name of the city of 'Thiruvananthapuram' in Tamil and Malayalam translates to "The City of Lord Ananta" (The City ...
on 13 July 2020.
As Chief Justice of India
On 10 August 2022,
President of India
The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...
Droupadi Murmu
Droupadi Murmu (, born 20 June 1958) is an Indian politician who has been serving as the 15th president of India since 25 July 2022. She is the first person belonging to the tribal community and also the second woman after Pratibha Patil to hol ...
appointed him as the
49th Chief Justice of India
The chief justice of India (IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation w ...
. He took oath as the chief justice on 27 August 2022 in the
Rashtrapati Bhavan
The Rashtrapati Bhavan (, rāsh-truh-puh-ti bha-vun; ; originally Viceroy's House and later Government House) is the official residence of the President of India at the western end of Rajpath, Raisina Hill, New Delhi, India. Rashtrapati Bh ...
. He is the second direct appointee from the Bar to be appointed as the Chief Justice of India.
![Justice UU Lalit Taking Oath as 49th Chief Justice of India](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Justice_UU_Lalit_Taking_Oath_as_49th_Chief_Justice_of_India.jpg)
Chief Justice Lalit's tenure despite being short had brought major administrative changes to the court, a frantic pace of work with each bench of judges having to deal with 60-70 cases per day. Over the years Supreme Court's number of
constitution bench judgements fell dramatically from an average of 134 in the 1960s to just 2 in 2021, this has led to 53 such critical constitutional cases being left unheard and pending. To reverse this trend Chief Justice U. U Lalit announced that a constitution bench would hear 25 constitutional cases on his first day of office, and under his tenure at least one constitutional bench functioned everyday. The cases heard include the legality of the
Citizenship Amendment Act
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019. It amended the Indian nationality law, Citizenship Act, 1955 by providing a pathway to Indian citizenship for Religious persecution, persecuted rel ...
, validity of
demonetisation, setting up of regional benches of the supreme court, the declaring of Muslims as a socially and educationally backward community in
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
, right to a dignified death, protection of
jallikattu
(or ), also known as and , is a traditional event in which a bull ('' Bos indicus''), such as the Pulikulam or Kangayam breeds, is released into a crowd of people, and multiple human participants attempt to grab the large hump on the bull's b ...
, etc. There had also been a decline in the pendency of cases from 70,301 on September 1 to 69,461 on October 1. The supreme court began live streaming constitutional bench proceedings under his tenure. By the end of his tenure, the supreme court disposed of 10,000 cases while 8,700 cases were freshly filed which had resulted in a slight decrease in the pendency of cases and the court had set up 6 constitution benches.
Chief Justice Lalit could only recommend one new judge to the Supreme Court, his proposal to recommend four more judges to the court, to fill the vacancies in the court, failed to get approval of the collegium over procedural differences arising out of the proposal being sent by circulation instead of being presented in a face to face meeting, as the meeting scheduled on September 30 couldn't take place as one of its members Justice
Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud
Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud (born 11 November 1959) is an Indian judge who is appointed as the List of chief justices of India, 50th and current Chief Justice of India. He is a former chief justice of the Allahabad High Court and a former ju ...
was busy hearing cases until 9:10 PM. As per procedure the
Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju
Kiren Rijiju (born 19 November 1971) is an Indian politician from Arunachal Pradesh who serves as the Cabinet Minister of Law and Justice in the Government of India.
Early life
Rijiju was born on 19 November 1971 at Nakhu near Nafra in West K ...
wrote to the Chief Justice on October 7 almost a month before his retirement, asking for his recommendations for the appointment of his successor, by convention once this letter is sent the collegium freezes and no new decisions like induction of new judges will be taken until the appointment of next Chief Justice.
He was part of the dissenting opinion in the plea against the 103rd constitutional amendment which created 10%
reservation for those designated to be part of the
economically weaker section
Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in India is a subcategory of people having an annual family income less than and who do not belong to any category such as SC/ ST/ OBC across India, nor to MBC in Tamil Nadu. A candidate who does not fall under ...
(EWS), the dissenting judges were of the view that the exclusion of SCs, STs, and OBCs from the quota was violation of equality and discriminatory, and that the judgement would act as a gateway to further infractions of the
50% ceiling set by the supreme court on reservation.
The supreme court under his tenure gave pro-civil liberties judgements like giving bail to activist
Teesta Setalvad
Teesta Setalvad (born 9 February 1962) is an Indian civil rights activist and journalist. She is the secretary of ''Citizens for Justice and Peace'' (CJP), an organisation formed to advocate for the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots.
Personal life
...
and the journalist
Sidheeq Kappan
Sidheeq Kappan is an Indian journalist from Kerala who had been imprisoned in October 2020 after being charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. He was arrested while on his way to Hathras to report on the 2020 Hathras gang rape and ...
. However his role in the unprecedented urgent Saturday morning hearing of the appeal against the acquittal of
UAPA
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is an Indian law aimed at prevention of unlawful activities associations in India. Its main objective was to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty o ...
accused
G. N. Saibaba by Bombay High Court has come into question, as the chief justice being the "master of the roster" has the power to decide when cases are listed and which bench of judges hears them.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lalit, Uday Umesh
1957 births
Living people
20th-century Indian lawyers
21st-century Indian judges
Chief justices of India
Indian Senior Counsel
Justices of the Supreme Court of India
People from Solapur