CJI UU Lalit also said that the Supreme Court would try to clear as many matters as it can. He also appealed to the lawyers present in the function to apprise it to every district and area of the country.
Addressing the function, CJI Lalit also said that he will do his best to live up to the expectations. Bar Council of India on Friday evening organised a felicitation function in honour of Chief Justice of India UU Lalit.
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was sworn in as 49th Chief Justice of India on Saturday. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office of the Chief Justice of India to Justice Lalit at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
He succeeded Justice NV Ramana, who retired on August 26. Justice Ramana had recommended Justice Lalit as his successor in keeping with convention and norms of seniority. The President subsequently confirmed Justice Lalit's appointment as the new CJI.
Justice Lalit will have a brief tenure of 74 days as the head of India's judiciary and would demit office on 8 November.
At the farewell function of former CJI Ramana, his successor Justice Lalit said that during his tenure of nearly three months he will focus on three key areas and one of his top priorities would be to make the listing of cases simple, clear and as transparent as possible.
Justice Lalit also promised to ensure a clear-cut regime where any urgent matters can freely be mentioned before the respective benches of the top court.
He assured that there will be at least one Constitution Bench functioning throughout the year in the Supreme Court. The outgoing CJI Ramana on his last working day apologised for not being able to list all the pending matters and said the court has been firefighting pendency, which rose alarmingly during the pandemic months.
Justice Lalit was a renowned senior advocate before he became the judge of the apex court. He was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court on August 13, 2014.
Justice Lalit is the second CJI who was directly elevated to the Supreme Court bench from the Bar. Justice SM Sikri, who became the 13th CJI in January 1971, was the first lawyer to be elevated directly to the top court bench in March 1964.
Justice Lalit was born on November 9, 1957, in Maharashtra's Solapur. His father, UR Lalit, was an additional judge at the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court and a senior advocate at the Supreme Court. Justice Lalit enrolled as an advocate in June 1983. He specialised in criminal law and practised at the Bombay High Court from 1983 to 1985.
He shifted his practice to Delhi in January 1986, and in April 2004, he was designated as a senior advocate by the top court.
He was later appointed a special public prosecutor for the CBI to conduct the trial in the 2G spectrum allocation case.
After Justice Lalit's retirement on November 8, Justice DY Chandrachud is expected to be appointed as the 50th Chief Justice of India. (ANI)
