48th Chief Justice of India, Justice N.V. Ramana


On the 24th of April 2021, Justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana sworn in as 48th Chief Justice of India. He is preceded by Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde on whose recommendation he was appointed by President Ram Nath Kovind on April 6th, 2021. He will serve as CJI till 26th August 2022, which is believed to be the longest for a CJI to serve since the last decade. He served as a Judge of the Supreme Court from 17th Feb 2014 to 23th April 2021 for almost 7 years and 2 months. Before his term as Supreme Court Judge, he was Chief Justice of Delhi High Court from 2nd September 2013 to 16th February 2014.

Justice N.V.Ramana was born on 27th August 1957 in an agricultural family of Ponnavaram Village, Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh. He enrolled himself as an Advocate on 10th Feb 1883 and practiced in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Administrative Tribunals of Andhra Pradesh, and Supreme Court of India in Civil, Criminal, Constitutional, Labour, Service, and Election Matters. He has also served as Additional Advocate General of Andhra Pradesh.

He was appointed as a Permanent Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on 27th June 2000 and served till 1st September 2013 and also functioned as Acting Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court from 10th March 2013 to 29th May 2013.

Before taking law as a career Justice Ramana worked as a journalist for the Regional Enadu newspaper for two years from 1979 to 1980 and reported on political and legal matters for the newspaper. 

He has been part of several landmark judgments based on constitutional rights, democratic values and accountability and dealt with several high-profile cases in the apex court related to Abrogation of Art.370 in J& K, restoration of the internet in the Kashmir Valley, restoration of Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh, and Right to Information Act. In the case of Shiva Sena v. Union of India, he led the bench concerning former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnaves asking him to conduct a floor test to prove his majority in the House in 2019. He clarified the legal position of disqualification under Tenth Schedule in his verdict related to Karnataka Assembly in 2019 that defection under the schedule could not operate as a bar for contesting elections again.

Justice Ramana is seen as more of a conventional Judge than a traditional one and is known to talk less and restrained in his speech. He adheres to the principle of judicial discipline and the rule of precedent while delivering his orders and judgments. He has been vocal about the huge number of pendency of cases and access to justice for the poor section, women, and children being a major concern among them. He has been the executive chairman of the National Legal Services Authority and has called upon lawyers to lend their hand to those who cannot afford litigation expenses. As a CJI has to work majorly on the issue of rendering access to justice to the underprivileged as well as to fill up the vacancies of Judges in the Supreme Court and High Courts in the future, not to mention the concern about the pendency of cases in the High Courts which has breached the mark of five million cases.