JUSTICE BOBDE THE NEXT CJI

Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, second seniormost judge of the Supreme Court who will be the next Chief Justice of India (CJI), is recognised for handling several important matters, including the Ayodhya land dispute case -- judgement for which is awaited.

Justice Bobde will take charge as the 47th CJI on November 18, a day after incumbent Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi retires. He will be the CJI for around 18 months and retire on April 23, 2021.

Bobde is part of the fivejudge Constitution Bench dealing with the Ayodhya land dispute case, one of the longest running legal battle.

He has also handled one of the most controversial cases related to allegations of sexual harassment against CJI Gogoi. The in-house Bench, headed by Justice Bobde, has given a clean chit to Justice Gogoi, saying "no substance" was found in the allegation levelled by a former employee. Justice Bobde was part of a ninejudge Bench that declared in August 2017 the right to privacy as a fundamental right of an individual. He was also part of the threejudge Bench, which in 2015 had clarified that no citizen without an Aadhaar card could be deprived of basic services and government subsidies.

As a member of the twojudge Bench in 2017, he had dismissed the Lingayat community's spiritual head Mate Mahadevi's appeal against ban on sale and circulation of her book, and upheld the Karnataka government decision to proscribe the book as it had outraged the religious feelings of Lord Basavanna's followers.

He, as a part of the Bench that directed On October 22 the Committee of Administrators (CoA), appointed by the court to run the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), to demit the office as its term ended once the new office-bearers took charge.