Justice DY Chandrachud was on Wednesday sworn in as the 50th Chief Justice of India after more than six years as a Supreme Court judge. His tenure in the Supreme Court will be two years.
His father was former CJI YV Chandrachud. Justice Chandrachud and his father are the first father-son duo in the country's judicial history to reach the rank of CJI. The 50th CJI of the country is with the courage of conviction, who has expressed zealous commitment to the primacy of the fundamental rights of the citizens. With several dissenting views, well-crafted judgments, and persuasive and sympathetic remarks, Justice Chandrachud, through his judgments, has commented on fundamental rights, privacy, gender sensitization, and women's rights and important issues of LGBTQ+.
Let's learn about the past life of DY Chandrachud.
Dhananjay Yashwant Chandrachud is the 50th Chief Justice of India, whose term is expected to be two years. He is the former ex-officio executive chairman of the National Legal Services Authority while being the J1 (or the senior-most judge after the Chief Justice) of the Supreme Court of India.
Dhananjay Chandrachud was born on 11 November 1959 in a prominent Chandrachud family. His father, Yashwant Vishnu Chandrachud, is the longest-serving Chief Justice of India. His mother, Prabha, was a classical musician.
Educated at Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, and St. Columbia School, Delhi, he graduated with honors in Economics and Mathematics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, in 1979. DY Chandrachud earned his Bachelor of Law degree from the Faculty of Law at the University of Delhi in 1982, followed by a master's degree in Law from Harvard Law School in 1983. He studied on the prestigious Inlaks Scholarship given to Indian citizens pursuing undergraduate education.
Abroad and received the Joseph H. Beale Award at Harvard. He remained at Harvard to complete his Doctorate of Juridical Science, which he completed in 1986. His doctoral dissertation was on affirmative action and considered law in a comparative framework. DY Chandrachud studied law at the University of Delhi in 1982 when few jobs were available for young law graduates. He worked as a junior advocate assisting lawyers and judges, including preparing some briefs for Fali Nariman.
After graduating from Harvard, Chandrachud first worked at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.
DY Chandrachud described the experience as "sheer temporary" because of the strong pecking order that existed at the time and a strong bias against hiring Indians and similar developing countries. Upon his return to India, he practiced law in the Supreme Court of India and the Bombay High Court. He became a Judge of the Bombay High Court on 29 March 2000 until he was appointed the Allahabad High Court Chief Justice. During this time, he was also the director of the Maharashtra Judicial Academy. He was the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court from 31 October 2013 until his appointment to the Supreme Court of India on 13 May 2016.
From 24 April 2021, he became part of the Collegium of the Supreme Court of India, a body composed of the five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court of India and is responsible for appointing judges. In addition to his judicial service, Chandrachud was a visiting comparative constitutional law professor at the University of Mumbai and the University of Oklahoma College of Law in the United States. He has lectured at the Australian National University, Deakin University, Melbourne Law School, Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, the William S Richardson School of Law, the University of Hawaii, and the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. And today, he became the 50th Chief Justice of India on 9 November 2022.