New Delhi: The country is going to get a new Chief Justice of India (CJI) today. Justice UU Lalit will take oath as the new Chief Justice of the country today. President Droupadi Murmu will administer the oath to him. Justice UU Lalit will become the 49th CJI of India. His term will be till November 8, 2022.

Justice Lalit was made a Justice of the Supreme Court directly from the bar in 2014. Earlier in 1971, Justice SM Sikri was the first Chief Justice to come directly from the Bar. Justice Lalit’s tenure will be till 8 November 2022. That is, his tenure as Chief Justice will be less than three months.

Who is Justice UU Lalit?

Justice UU Lalit was born on 9 November 1957 in Solapur, Maharashtra. He has practiced law from the Law College, Solapur. He then registered himself as an advocate in 1983 and practiced in the Bombay High Court till December 1985. He moved to Delhi in January 1986 and started practicing law and in April 2004 he was designated as a Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court.

Justice UU Lalit has worked as Special Public Prosecutor of CBI in 2G cases. He has also been a member of the Legal Services Committee of the Supreme Court for two consecutive terms. On 10 January 2019, Justice Uday Umesh Lalit made headlines by recusing himself from the 5-judge bench hearing the Ayodhya case. He had argued that about 20 years ago he had been a lawyer for former UP CM Kalyan Singh in a criminal case related to the Ayodhya dispute.

UU Lalit has been associated with many high-profile cases. This also includes the case of actor Salman Khan in the blackbuck poaching case.