Justice DY Chandrachud takes oath as 50th Chief Justice of India

Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant (DY) Chandrachud was sworn in as the 50th Chief Justice of India on Wednesday at a major change of guard at the Supreme Court of India. The two-year term of CJI Chandrachud is scheduled to end on November 10, 2024. Justice Chandrachud was sworn in as Chief Justice of India by President of India Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

“To serve the nation is my priority. We’ll protect all the citizens of India, be it in terms of technology or registry reforms, or judicial reforms,” stated CJI Chandrachud. Soon after taking the oath of office, Chief Justice Chandrachud paid respects to the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Parliament. CJI Chandrachud is the son of DY Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud, the sixteenth CJI. On May 13, 2016, Chandrachud was chosen to serve as a Supreme Court judge.

From October 31, 2013 till his appointment to the Supreme Court, Chandrachud, who was born on November 11th, 1959, served as the chief justice of the Allahabad High Court. From March 29, 2000, he presided as a judge of the Bombay High Court. Justice Chandrachud has already served on various Constitution benches and been a part of significant rulings by the Supreme Court, including ones on the Ayodhya land dispute, the right to privacy, and adultery.

He served on the benches that rendered ground-breaking rulings on the constitutionality of the Aadhaar programme, the validity of Section 377 of the IPC, and the Sabarimala issue. These rulings led to the decriminalisation of same-sex relationships. He presided over a bench that last month broadened the application of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act and related regulations to cover unmarried women seeking abortions between 20 and 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Justice UU Lalit, who left office on November 8 after a brief 74-day term, is succeeded by Justice Chandrachud. Judges of the Supreme Court are eligible to retire at age 65. On October 11, retired Chief Justice Lalit suggested Justice Chandrachud as his replacement to the Centre.

Jagdeep Dhankhar, the vice president of India and chair of the Rajya Sabha, Om Birla, the speaker of the Lok Sabha, and the union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, and Kiren Rijiju were all present for CJI Chandrachud’s swearing-in. Also present during the occasion was former CJI Lalit. Justice Chandrachud earned his LLB from the Campus Law Center at Delhi University after completing his BA with honours in economics at St. Stephen’s College in New Delhi. He graduated from Harvard Law School in the USA with an LLM and an SJD, a doctorate in the judicial sciences.