Justice Bobde sworn in as CJI, will demit office in April, 2021

Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde was on Monday administered oath as the 47th Chief Justice of India by President Ram Nath Kovind.

Justice Bobde, 63, succeeds Justice Ranjan Gogoi who demitted office on Sunday.

Outgoing Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on October 18 had recommended Justice Bobde, the second senior-most judge of the apex court, as his successor. Justice Bobde will serve as CJI for around 18 months and retire on April 23, 2021.

Justice Bobde took oath in English in the name of God at a brief ceremony held at the Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several senior ministers were present at the oath-taking ceremony. Former vice president Hamid Ansari and former prime minister Manmohan Singh were also present.

Justice Bobde had said that he would prefer a conservative approach on the issue of disclosing the Collegium's entire deliberations on rejection of names for appointment in the higher judiciary.

In an interview to PTI after being appointed as the CJI last month, he had said that people's reputation cannot be sacrificed just to satisfy the desire of citizens to know.

On the issue of huge vacancies of judges in courts across the country and lack of judicial infrastructure, Justice Bobde had said that he wishes to take to the "logical end" the steps taken by his predecessor CJI Gogoi.

Born in Nagpur on April 24, 1956, he completed his graduation and obtained a law degree from Nagpur University. He was enrolled on the roll of the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1978 and was designated as Senior Advocate in 1998.

His career as judge began on March 29, 2000 when he was appointed as Additional Judge in the Bombay High Court, and he rose to become Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on October 16, 2012. He was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court on April 12, 2013.

Justice Bobde was part of the five-judge constitution bench hearing the longest running Ayodhya land dispute case. He was part of the in-house panel which has handled the controversial case related to allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice Gogoi, and gave him a clean chit, saying "no substance" was found in the allegation levelled by a former employee.

Justice Gogoi, the 46th Chief Justice of India, took charge on October 3, 2018 and demitted office on Sunday.

with IANS and PTI inputs