NEW DELHI: Justice NV Ramana on Saturday took over as the 48th Chief Justice of India.
President of India Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath to Justice Ramana at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in a brief ceremony.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad were among those present at the ceremony.
Justice Ramana took the oath in English in the name of God. He replaces Justice SA Bobde who retired on Friday.
Appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court on February 17, 2014, he will retire on August 26, 2022. Justice Ramana will have a tenure of around 16 months as the CJI.
He headed the Supreme Court Bench that decided the Kashmir lockdown case and declared access to Internet a constitutionally protected right under Article 19 (1)(a) and Article 19 (1)(g) on January 10, 2020.
A month before his retirement on April 23, CJI SA Bobde had on March 24 recommended Justice NV Raman as his successor after an in-house inquiry of the Supreme Court dismissed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s allegation that the senior-most judge attempted to destabilise his government.
There has been a convention of CJI recommending the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as his successor. Only twice, it was not followed – first when Justice AN Ray was appointed as the CJI on April 25, 1973 superseding three senior-most judges and second time when Justice MH Beg was appointed the CJI on January 29, 1977 superseding Justice HR Khanna.
President Kovind had April 6 appointed Justice Ramana as the 48th Chief Justice of India.
Born in an agricultural family on August 27, 1957 in Ponnavaram Village, Krishna District, Justice Ramana holds B.Sc. and B.L. degrees.
He got enrolled as an Advocate on February 10, 1983 and practiced in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Central and Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunals and the Supreme Court of India in Civil, Criminal, Constitutional, Labour, Service and Election matters.
He specialises in Constitutional, Criminal, Service and Inter-State River laws and has also functioned as Panel Counsel for various government Organisations as also as Additional Standing Counsel for Central Government and Standing Counsel for Railways in the Central Administrative Tribunal at Hyderabad. He was also the Additional Advocate General of Andhra Pradesh.
He was appointed as a Permanent Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on June 27, 2000 and also functioned as Acting Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court from March 10, 2013 to May 20, 2013.
Appointed as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court on September 2, 2013, Justice Ramana was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on February 17, 2014.