Delhi, August 27th, 2022: Judge N V Ramana, the 48th Chief Justice of India, assumed office on 24th April 2021, officially retired on Friday. On his last day, he introduced path-breaking decisions and laws.
Before departing, Ramana put the sedition law on hold, reviewed the money laundering verdict, ordered probes into the Pegasus snooping and Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, and ensured the appointment of eleven judges in the Supreme Court, including three women and 220 judges in the High courts across India.
In a historic order taken in May, CJI Ramana had put the sedition law on hold, asking the Centre and states to not register any cases of sedition.
Ramana took note of the misuse of the sedition law and made the ground-breaking decision of putting the colonial era law on hold for the Centre and all the states.
On his last day in office, all the proceedings of the bench headed by him in the Supreme Court were live-streamed.
This was the first time that proceedings of the apex court were live-streamed for the public to view.
In another major development, the CJI also led a special bench and issued a notice to the Gujarat govt on a plea challenging the release of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape and murder case.
He also assured the appointments of nearly 100 presiding officers, technical and legal members in tribunals across the nation.
His efforts also led to the increase of the Telangana High Court bench from 24 to 42 judges.
Before departing, Ramana also ordered probes into several unresolved and imperative cases.
He also apologized to the public for not being able to tackle the issues plaguing the listing of cases in the Supreme Court.
A man of judicial excellence and caliber, NV Ramana will be succeeded by Judge Uday Umesh Lalit, the 49th Chief Justice of India.
