Justice DY Chandrachud becomes 50th Chief Justice of India

Justice DY Chandrachud was sworn in as the 50th Chief Justice of India (CJI) on Wednesday by President Draupadi Murmu. CJI Chandrachud succeeds Justice UU Lalit as the head of the Indian judiciary.

Born on November 11, 1959 to the 16th Chief Justice of India, YV Chandrachud and Prabha Chandrachud, a classical musician, Justice DY Chandrachud graduated from St. Stephens College in Delhi with a degree in Economics and Mathematics in 1979, before obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the Faculty of Law at Delhi University in 1982.

Justice Chandrachud went on to study at Harvard University, getting an LL.M degree in 1983. He qualified for the Inlaks scholarship and received the Joseph H. Beale prize for securing the highest marks in the Conflict of Laws course. He finished his Doctorate in Juridical Sciences from Harvard and enrolled as an Advocate with the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1987.

As an Advocate, he represented a labourer, who was denied further employment by the public corporation he worked for after contracting HIV-AIDS. Justice Chandrachud started focusing on social causes and represented bonded women labourers and people from religious and linguistic minorities, fighting for their rights.

Justice Chandrachud continued legal academics as an Advocate and took up the post of Visiting Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Bombay between 1988 and 1997.

He became a Senior Advocate in June 1998, at the age of 38, which was rare, as the designation was usually given to Advocates above 40 at that time. 

He was later appointed as Additional Solicitor General of India, a position he held till his elevation as a judge of the Bombay High Court on March 29, 2000. This became the turning point in the career of Justice Chandrachud, who while serving alongside Justice Ranjana Desai on a criminal Bench, developed a ‘feminist perspective’ towards the laws and their application on social realities.

He became the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court on October 31, 2013 and held the position till his appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court on May 13, 2016.

Justice Chandrachud became a part of the Supreme Court Collegium on April 24, 2021. The Collegium is a body composed of five senior-most Judges of the Supreme Court, which is responsible for the appointment of Judges in the Supreme Court, as well as the High Courts of the country. He was also the executive chairman of the National Legal Services Authority.