At the age of 62 years, 11 months and 29 days, Justice DY Chandrachud will also be the youngest CJI of the last 10 years.
At the age of 62 years, 11 months and 29 days, Justice DY Chandrachud will also be the youngest CJI of the last 10 years.
On October 17, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju announced that President Draupadi Murmu had appointed Justice Dhananjay Yashwant Chandrachud. 50th Chief Justice of India (CJI). Justice Chandrachud The current CJI will take oath on November 9, 2022, a day after Justice UU Lalit retires.
DY Chandrachud was born on 11 November 1959 in Mumbai, Maharashtra. After graduating from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, he pursued Law (LLB) from the Faculty of Law at the University of Delhi. He received his Master of Law (LLM) degree and Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) degree from Harvard Law School. Justice Chandrachud was elevated to the Supreme Court on May 13, 2016. Prior to this, he had served as the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.
Justice Chandrachud will serve as CJI for two years and two days till his retirement on November 10, 2024. He is expected to be the 14th longest tenure among the 50 CJIs analysed. His tenure will be the longest among all CJIs of the last decade. The 11 CJIs appointed after Justice SH Kapadia, who assumed office on May 12, 2010 and who served two years, four months and 19 days in the top post, had a shorter tenure than Justice Chandrachud.
Interestingly, Justice DY Chandrachud’s father, Justice YV Chandrachud, holds the record for the longest serving as CJI. Justice Y V Chandrachud was appointed on 22 February 1978 and retired on 11 July 1985, meaning he served at the top post for seven years, four months and 19 days. Justice Bhuvneshwar Prasad Sinha, India’s sixth CJI, comes in second with four years, four months and one day. He is followed by Justice AN Ray who served for three years, nine months and four days.
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Justice KN Singh, who was appointed as CJI on November 25, 1991, had the shortest tenure: only 17 days until his retirement. Justice S. Rajendra Babu was the other CJI whose tenure lasted less than a month. Table 1 Lists CJI with longest and shortest terms. Statistics show that on an average a CJI has served for 1.5 years.
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Justice Chandrachud will assume office in November at the age of 62 years, 11 months and 29 days, making him the 16th youngest CJI. He will be the youngest CJI in the last decade. Justice YV Chandrachud, who was appointed to the post at the age of 57 years, seven months and 13 days, holds the record for the youngest CJI. Table 2 Lists the youngest and oldest CJIs based on their age at the time of appointment.
Maharashtra, the state in which Justice Chandrachud was born, is the state of birth for six other CJIs. Five CJIs each were born in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. chart 3 Shows the number of CJIs born in different states/countries.
The University of Delhi, where Justice Chandrachud completed his LLB, produced three other Chief Justices. However, at the forefront of the list of institutions is the Government Law College of Mumbai, which is the alma mater of the five CJIs. chart 4 Shows the names of universities/colleges participated by CJI. Only those institutes have been listed from which at least two CJIs have graduated.
as shown in Table 5 Next in line to become the CJI is Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who is expected to take charge on November 11, 2024. His term will last for six months and one day. None of the next five potential Chief Justices is expected to exceed the tenure of Justice Chandrachud. One year, two months and 15 days of Justice Suryakant comes to a close.
vignesh.r@thehindu.co.in and rebecca.varghese@thehindu.co.in
Sources: Website of Supreme Court of India and The Hindu Archives
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