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SHARAD ARVIND BOBDE

NAME: Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde

KNOWN FOR: Being the 47th Chief Justice (18 November 2019-23 April 2021)

BORN: 24 April, 1956 (age 64)

FATHER NAME: Arvind Shrinivas Bobde (Former Advocate General Maharashtra)

MOTHER’S NAME: Mukta Arvind Bobde

SPOUSE: Kamini Bobde

SIBLINGS: Brother Vinod Arvind Bobde (Former Senior Supreme Court Lawyer)

CHILDREN: Adv. Shrinivas Bobde, Savitri Bobde, Rukmini Bobde

PLACE OF BIRTH: Nagpur, Maharashtra, India

EDUCATION:

  • Bachelor of Arts from the St. Francis De Sales College in 1975
  • Bachelor of Laws from Nagpur University’s Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar College of Law in 1978

PROFESSION: Chief Justice of India

SPECIALIZED: Constitutional, Company, Administrative, Election and Environmental law.

Sharad Arvind Bobde is the 47th and the current Chief Justice of India. He was appointed by President Ram Nath Govind on October 29, 2019 and he took charge as the 47th Chief Justice of India on November 18, 2019 after CJI Ranjan Gogoi retired on 17 November 2019.

He had been chosen following the rule of seniority and recommended by former CJI Gogoi by sending a letter of recommendation to the Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. He comes from a family of lawyer. His grandfather was an advocate and his father Arvind Shrinivas Bobde was the Advocate General of Maharashtra in 1980 and 1985 and also his brother Vinod Bobde was an advocate of Supreme Court of India and a constitutional expert who passed away in 2016.

He has been the longest serving Chief Justice of India in the past eight year after late Justice S. H. Kapadia, who had the longest tenure as the Chief Justice of India. Justice Bobde is the second judge from Maharashtra’s Nagpur region to be appointed as CJI after Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah who was the 11th CJI.

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION

CJI Bobde had completed his schooling at St. Francis De ’Sales High School, Nagpur and for higher education he joined St. Francis De Sales College, Nagpur. Justice Bobde completed his Bachelor of Arts and LLB degree from Dr. Ambedkar Law College, Nagpur University

LEGAL CAREER

He was enrolled as an advocate of the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1978 and started practicing law at the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court. He had worked in the Nagpur Bench for several years and he was the designated as Senior Advocate of Nagpur.

He was also the additional judge of the Bombay High Court on 29 March, 2000 – just two years after he was designated as a Judge of Bombay High Court till October 15, 2012. He was designated as senior advocate in 1998.

He had a practice of 21 year and he was the part of various high-stake cases like the Adarsh housing society scam and the PIL against Lavasa Corporation Limited. He was sworn in as Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on 16th October 2012. He was elevated to the judge of the Supreme Court of India on April 12, 2013 and in 2016 he was part of three-judge bench which suspended the sales of firecrackers in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Justice Bobde was also part of the Top Court Bench which had insisted that a citizen cannot be deprived of essential services and welfare subsidies of the State for lack of an Aadhaar card.

Justice Bobde will have a tenure of around 18 months till his retirement on April 23, 2021.

Judgements by CJI Bobde

M Siddiq v. Mahant Suresh Das 9th November, 2019

Ayodhya Land Dispute Case was one of the most important cases in the legal career of Justice S.A Bobde. The civil suit was regarding dispute over a piece of land admeasuring 15000 square yards in the town of Ayodhya. The case initially started as a property dispute between the two communities – Hindus and Muslims and in later stage developed as case of national importance due to politics involved in the case.

Justice S.A Bobde was also a part of a five-judge Constitution bench which heard and delivered the judgement on November 9, 2019. It was the one of the most sensitive cases of the Indian legal history. Justice Bobde was the first judge who pushed for mediation of Ayodhya dispute in the order to “heal hearts and minds.”

“Dispute has seen many bitter decades and believed that talks would cool tempers across the religious divide,” he said.

BCCI Committee of Administrators, 2019

In October 2019, a two-judge Bench headed by Justice Bobde directed the Committee of Administrators (COA) headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai to demit the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) administration office in order for charge to be taken by elected members to run the affairs of the cricket board and Sourav Ganguly promised that during his tenure “he will run the world’s richest cricket body the same way he led the Indian team.”

Savita Sachin Patil v. Union of India on 29 January, 2019

In this case, the petitioner approached the court under Article 32 of the Constitution of India seeking to undergo medical termination of her pregnancy.

Justice Bobde and the bench of court rejected termination of pregnancy on the ground considering the medical report which opined that though the foetus suffered with physical anomalies, it does not create any risk to the physical health of the mother.

K. S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India on 26 September, 2018

Justice Bobde was member of the nine- judge bench in the landmark judgment on the fundament right to privacy. In this case a retired High Court judge – K.S. Puttaswamy filed a petition in 2012 against the Union of India before the nine- judge bench of SC challenging the constitutionality of Aadhaar scheme which was introduced by the UPA Government.

Justice Bobde stated that “Privacy as a natural right residing in multiple fundamental rights, with its core in the right to life.” He also stated that Aadhar is a fair, just and reasonable restriction on privacy.

Arjun Gopal v Union of India on 23 October.2018

In this case, the petition was filed by the father who was concerned about the health of his children due to the air quality in the city of Delhi which was likely to cause various health hazards and claimed that the air quality is very poor and affects all citizens irrespective of their age but children were much more vulnerable to air pollutants and further could result into coughing, asthama, bronchitis, retarded nervous system breakdown and even cognitive impairment, etc.

The three-Judge bench comprising Justice T. S. Thakur, Justice A. K. Sikri and Justice S. A. Bobde banned the sale of firecrackers and stocking of firecrackers. The court had also given various directions including allowance of only green cracker to be manufactured and sold and all other types of crackers to be banned. The bench permitted only a registered and licensed trader to sell firecrackers and timings was also fixed from 8:00 p.m. to till 10:00 p.m. and in Christmas and New year eve fireworks were allowed from 11:55 p.m. till 12:30 a.m. etc.

Poojaya Sri Jagadguru Maate v. Government of Karnataka on 20 September, 2017

Justices Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao had upheld the government of Karnataka on banning a book by guru Maate on the ground that it outraged the religious feeling of Lord Basavanna’s followers.

The court upheld a ban of book without so much as considering the implications that such sanctions have on free speech. In this case, the government found that the book’s contents appeared to infringe on section 295 A of the IPC which criminalizes speech that hurts religious sentiments of people in large.

Re promulgation of ordinance (Krishna Kumar Singh v State of Bihar on 2 January, 2017)

The Supreme Court’s seven-judge Constitution Bench held that re-promulgation of ordinance is fraud on the Constitution and subversion of democratic legislative processes.

In this case, the appeal was filed by the petitioners who were serving as teaching and non-teaching staff at Sanskriti School in Bihar and were aggrieved by the decision of the High Court Bench of Patna.

A series of promulgation of ordinance took place during this period and the High Court held that they would only hold government servant status as government servant from 16/12/1989 – 30/4/1992, the date on which the last ordinance would lapse.

Jindal Stainless Steel v. State of Haryana on 11 November, 2016

The nine-judge bench by 7:2 majority upheld the validity of the entry tax imposed by the states on goods imported from other states and Justice Bobde was a part of the seven-judge majority.

It was held that in this case that state legislatures are free to exercise their taxing power without the need of declaring and showing that taxes imposed by them for the benefit of concerned traders or manufacturers but such taxes must be non-discriminatory in nature.

Justice Bobde said that“chief justice held that taxes are not a restriction on freedom of trade commerce and intercourse. Further he stated that if this would be considered to be a restriction than even paying a charge of bus ticket would be considered to restriction on freedom of movement.”

Controversial CJI sexual harassment case

Sexual harassment allegation on CJI Gogoi was a very crucial order passed by a committee led by Justice Bobde, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna. This committee also include two women judges (Justice Banerjee and Justice Indu Malhotra).

In this case, sexual harassment allegation was made by a former junior officer of the court on CJI Gogoi and she submitted written documents substantiating her claim and wrote a letter to 22 Supreme Court Justices. This case led larger conspiracy on the independence of judiciary.

Justice Bobde headed the Supreme Court panel of judges and did not find any substance in the allegation and CJI Gogoi was given a clean chit on 6 May, 2019.

Controversy of CJI Bobde riding a Harley Davidson

On June 29, 2020, CJI Bobde’s photo sitting on a parked limited-edition Harley Davidson CVO 2020 was widely shared on social media. Several lawyers and journalists tweeted on the same.

In one interview before his appointment in October 2019 as a Chief Justice of India, he had revealed that he was a bike enthusiast and he used to ride the Royal Enfield bike.

The main controversy arose after the tweet of Adv. Prashant Bhushan which questioned the Chief Justice of India for not wearing mask as well as helmet.

Prashant Bhushan also tweeted that CJI rides a 50 Lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP leader at Raj Bhavan Nagpur without wearing mask and helmet and keep Supreme Court in lockdown and denying the citizen of India to access justice which is their fundamental right.