Justice UU Lalit may be next CJI: Chief Justice Ramana recommends to Centre; Gave many decisions including invalidating triple talaq

Justice UU Lalit can become the 49th CJI of the country. CJI NV Ramana has recommended his name to Law Minister Kiren Rijiju. CJI Ramana will retire on August 26. Justice Lalit may take oath as CJI on August 27. CJI Ramana handed over a copy of his letter of recommendation to Personal Justice Lalit on Thursday morning.

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday wrote a letter to CJI NV Ramana on Wednesday night. In this, he appealed to him to name his successor. It is a convention that the incumbent CJI recommends the name of his successor only when he is requested to do so by the Law Ministry.

Justice Lalit to become CJI only for 74 days
At present, Justice Lalit, the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, will become the CJI only for 74 days, as he will retire on November 8. Justice Lalit enrolled as an advocate in June 1983. He practiced in the Bombay High Court till December 1985, then transferred the practice to Delhi in January 1986.

He was nominated by the Supreme Court as Senior Advocate in April 2004. He was appointed as the Special Public Prosecutor for the CBI to hear all 2G cases under the orders of the Supreme Court. Justice Lalit was also a member of the Supreme Court of India Legal Services Committee for two terms.

Justice Lalit will be the second CJI to be directly promoted from the bar to the SC bench
Justice Lalit has been a part of several landmark judgments including outlawing the practice of ‘triple talaq’. If he is appointed the next CJI, he will be the second CJI to be directly promoted from the bar to the SC bench in 2014. Before him, Justice S. M. Sikri was the first lawyer to be directly promoted to the SC bench in March 1964. He became the 13th CJI in January 1971.