New Delhi: Supreme Court judge Dhananjaya Yashwant Chandrachud took oath as the 50th Chief Justice of India on Wednesday succeeding Justice UU Lalit, reported news agency ANI. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of the Office of Chief Justice of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Justice Chandrachud will have a tenure in the office till November 10, 2024.
After he took the oath, Justice Chandrachud paid tribute at the Mahatma Gadhi statue in the Supreme Court and said that serving the country is his priority.
"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," the CJI said.
He took the office, 44 years after his father, Justice YV Chandrachud became the 16th Chief Justice of the country from February 2, 1978 to July 11, 1985.
Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court as judge on May 13, 2016, Justice Chandrachud was the Chief Justice at Allahabad High Court from October 31, 2013.
Justice Chandrachud, 62, was also the judge at Bombay High Court before his appointment as Chief Justice at Allahabad High Court.
He had also served as Additional Solicitor General of India from 1998 until his appointment as a judge in the Bombay High Court. He was designated as a senior advocate by the Bombay High Court in June 1998.
Justice Chandrachud succeeds Justice UU Lalit. Justice Lalit on October 11, had recommended Justice DY Chandrachud's name as his successor to the Centre in accordance with the convention. President Murmu had appointed him as the next CJI on October 17. The Union Law Ministry had recently initiated the process for the appointment of the next CJI, asking the outgoing CJI to recommend his successor.
Notably, his judgments regarding personal liberty have been significant. In his judgment given while quashing Section 497 of IPC for adultery, he wrote that even a married woman has her autonomy. She cannot be seen as the property of her husband. Her having a relationship with another man can be a valid ground for divorce, but considering it as a crime to put another man in jail would be wrong.
Recently he also allowed unmarried women to abort their pregnancies from 20 to 24 weeks. In this landmark decision, he also said that if a husband has impregnated his wife by forcibly having sex, then she too will have the right to an abortion up to 24 weeks. In this way, the case of abortion itself, for the first time in the law, recognized marital rape.