Justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana was sworn in as the 48th Chief Justice of India (CJI) by President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday and will hold the positions for 16 months, until August 26, 2022. He has taken over from Former CJI SA Bobde, who retired from office on Friday.
Justice Ramana was born in a largely agriculture-dependent family in 1957 in Ponnavaram village in Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district. He is the youngest of three siblings.
He worked as a journalist for a brief period from 1979 to 1980 for the Eenadu newspaper, before enrolling as an advocate in 1983.
Enrolling as a lawyer on February 10, 1983, he practised before the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, central Andhra Pradesh tribunals as well as the Supreme Court of India in the following years.
Fighting for civil liberties during the period of emergency as a student and concerning himself to the issues related to farmers and industrial workers, Ramana lost a year of his student life. He also partook in the Jai Andhra Movement of the 1970s, which was set up to protest against the inequalities faced by the coastal population and those belonging to the Rayalaseema region.
Appointed as a permanent judge in the Andhra Pradesh High Court on June 27, 2000, eventually, Ramana was ascended to the position of Chief Justice of Delhi High Court on September 2, 2013, where throughout his seven years of tenure, he authored 156 judgements.
From bringing CJI’s office amenable to the Right to Information Act to the lifting of internet restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir, he has been a part of many significant rulings during his tenure in the Supreme Court.
Justice Ramana is only the second CJI from Andhra Pradesh after Justice K Subba Rao.
(With inputs from IANS)
