New Chief Justice of India Sworn In

The senior-most Supreme Court judge, Justice Nutalapati Venkata Ramana, a native of Andhra Pradesh, was today sworn in as the 48th Chief Justice of India. The appointment makes the senior judge the second Telugu legal luminary to head the Supreme Court after Koka Subba Rao who held the position of CJI from June 30, 1966, to April 11, 1967.

President Ram Nath Kovind, who had given his assent to elevate the senior judge to the position earlier this month, administered the oath of office and secrecy to the latter at a simple program at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, several other cabinet ministers, and some SC judges were among those who attended the ceremony.

Ramana has replaced the previous CJI, Sharad Arvind Bobde, whose tenure came to an end on April 23. Reports say that the new CJI will head the Supreme Court for 16 months, till August 26, 2022.

The first thing that Ramana will need to address as CJI is the matter of prolonging the summer break of the court to give it time to take steps to vaccinate all its employees and to provide support to the families of those employees who had contracted Covid-19.