Justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana took oath as the 48th Chief Justice Of India this morning. Due to Covid restrictions, President Ram Nath Kovind administered him the oath at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi in a small ceremony. Justice Ramana, 63, will hold the post for sixteen months until August 26, 2022.
In the farewell to Justice SA Bobde, who retired as the Chief Justice yesterday, Justice Ramana said, “We are going through testing times as we battle the Covid wave. Lawyers, judges, and court staff are all affected due to the virus. Some tough measures may be necessary to break the chain of transmission. We can defeat the pandemic together with dedication.”
Justice Ramana was born on August 27, 1957, in an agricultural family in Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district. He is India’s second Chief Justice from Andhra Pradesh; Justice K Subba Rao was India’s ninth Chief Justice from 1966-1967.
In his almost four-decade-long career, Justice Ramana has practiced in Andhra Pradesh High Court, central and Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunals, and Supreme Court of India in civil, criminal, labour, constitutional, service, and election matters.
On June 27, 2000, Justice Ramana was appointed as Andhra Pradesh High Court’s permanent Judge. He performed as acting Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court from March 10, 2013, to May 20, 2013.
In 2013, he was promoted as Chief Justice of Delhi High Court and in 2014 as a judge in the top court.
Justice NV Ramana was part of a bench that ruled that Jammu and Kashmir’s Internet suspension should be analyzed quickly. He was also part of the panel of judges, which held that the Chief Justice’s office comes under the ambit of the Right to Information Act. He has advocated the need to implement regional languages as the court’s language to increase the participation of rural litigants in the trial process.
