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U. U. Lalit Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

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Age: 65 Years
Wife: Amita Lalit
Hometown: Mumbai

UU Lalit

Bio/Wiki
Full nameUday Umesh Lalit [1]NALSA
ProfessionJudge of Supreme Court of India
Famous ForBeing the 49th Chief Justice of India
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)in centimeters- 175 cm
in meters- 1.75 m
in feet & inches- 5’ 9”
Eye ColourBlack
Hair ColourSalt & Pepper
Judicial Service
Service Years1983-2022
Designation(s)• Judge of the Supreme Court of India (13 August 2014- 27 August 2022)
• 49th Chief Justice of India (27 August 2022- 8 November 2022)
Notable Judgement(s)• Triple Talaq Case: Justice UU Lalit was on the Constitution Bench that held that the practice of divorce through instant ‘triple talaq’ among Muslims illegal and unconstitutional

• Kashinath Mahajan v State of Maharashtra: In the SC/ST case, a Bench of Justice Adarsh Goel and Justice U U Lalit read down Section 18 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 to allow accused persons under the Act to apply for anticipatory bail.

• Ranjana Kumari v State of Uttarakhand: In the case, a bench of Justice UU Lalit, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, and Justice Joseph ruled held that the migrant laborers from other states, who migrate from their native state to work, shall not be regarded as the scheduled caste just because of the fact that the state makes that caste or has specified that caste as a scheduled caste within that state.

• Pradyuman Bisht v Union of India: In the case, Justice UU Lalit J and Justice Adarsh Goel directed that at least in two districts in every State/Union Territory (with the exception of small states/Union Territories where it may be considered to be difficult to do so by the concerned High Courts) CCTV Cameras (without audio recording) may be installed inside the courts and at such important locations of the Court complexes as may be considered appropriate. However, they ordered that these recordings will not be subject to the Right to Information Act.

• Amardeep Singh v Harveen Kaur: Justice UU Lalit was on the two-judge bench of the Supreme Court that held that the prescribed 6-month waiting period under Section 13B (2) of the Hindu Marriage Act for divorce by mutual consent was not mandatory.

• ‘Skin to Skin contact’ ruling for Sexual Assault under the POCSO Act: In 2021, a bench led by Justice Lalit set aside the Bombay High Court’s ruling and held that the act of touching the sexual part of the body or any other act involving physical contact if done with sexual intent would amount to sexual assault under POCSO Act. The SC said,
Touching through clothes/sheet with sexual intent is covered in the definition of POCSO. Courts should not be overzealous in searching for ambiguity in words that are plain. Narrow pedantic interpretation that would defeat the purpose of the provisions cannot be allowed”

• Travancore Royal family’s right to administer the Sree Padmanabha Swami Temple: The SC bench headed by Justice Lalit held that the royal family of Travancore had the management right over the Sree Padmanabha Swami Temple, reversing the verdict of the Kerala High Court which had directed the state government to create a trust to take control of the temple. The bench cited that the rule of heritability must get attached to a right of Shebait (servitor) of the temple.
Personal Life
Date of Birth9 November 1957 (Saturday)
Age (as of 2022) 65 Years
Zodiac signScorpio
NationalityIndian
HometownMumbai, Maharashtra
SchoolHaribhai Devkaran High School and Junior College, Solapur
College/UniversityGovernment Law College, Mumbai
Educational QualificationGraduation at Government Law College, Mumbai [2]The Hindu
ReligionHinduism [3]The Financial Express
Food HabitVegetarian [4]The Financial Express
Relationships & More
Marital StatusMarried
Marriage DateYear, 1986
Family
Wife/SpouseAmita Uday Lalit
A picture of U. U. Lalit with his wife, Amita Lalit

Note: In 2011, Amita Lalit founded the Stimulus School in Noida, which follows Montessori teaching methodology.
ChildrenSon(s)- Shreeyash Lalit (lawyer), Harshad Lalit
U. U. Lalit with his wife, Amita Lalit, and son Shreeyash Lalit
U. U. Lalit with his wife, Amita Lalit, and sons, Shreeyash Lalit and Harshad Lalit
ParentsFather- U. R. Lalit (lawyer)
Mother- Name Not Known

Note: U. R. Lalit has served as a senior counsel at the Supreme Court of India and an additional judge of the Delhi High Court and Bombay High Court.

U. U. Lalit (left) and the CJI N.V. Ramana

Some Lesser Known Facts About U. U. Lalit

  • U. U. Lalit is an Indian lawyer who was elevated to the position of Judge of the Supreme Court of India on 13 August 2014. In 2014, elevated to the position of Judge of the Supreme Court of India. In August 2022, the Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana proposed the name of U. U. Lalit as the next CJI.
  • Belonging to a family of lawyers, U. U. Lalit grew up watching his father, U. R. Lalit, and grandfather, Ranganath Lalit, practising law. U. R. Lalit was serving as an additional judge in the Delhi High Court when PM Indira Gandhi declared an emergency in India. At that time, U. R. Lalit boldly defied the political pressure and granted bail to under-trial prisoners packed in jails. It is assumed that U. R. Lalit was not approved by the Indira Gandhi regime as a judge of the HC. Meanwhile, U. U. Lalit’s grandfather, Ranganath Lalit, chaired two separate civic receptions when Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru visited Solapur, Maharashtra, the native town of the Lalit family.
  • After enrolling as an advocate with the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa in June 1983, he started practising in the High Court of Bombay under the senior advocate M. A. Rane.
  • He shifted his practice to Delhi in January 1986.
  • Thereafter, he worked in the law firm of P. H. Parekh & Co.
  • Lalit worked with the former Attorney General for India Soli Sorabjee from 1986 to 1992.
  • He was designated as Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court of India in April 2004. At SC, he served as an Amicus Curiae, a person who assists a court despite being a third party to a case.
  • He served as Special Public Prosecutor for CBI to conduct trials in the 2G scam under the orders of the SC. The alleged scam centred around various Indian politicians and private officials of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition government who were accused of issuing 122 2G licenses for benefitting specific telecom operators. A. Raja, a former telecom minister, was accused of allotting 2G licences to telecom operators at extremely low prices, which caused a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.
  • During his tenure as a Supreme Court lawyer, he represented various high-profile clients like Salman Khan in the blackbuck poaching case, former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh in a corruption case, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu in the road rage case, and businessman Hasan Ali Khan in a money laundering case.
  • However, defending Amit Shah in two high-profile criminal cases involving the fake encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati in Gujarat in in 2005-06 caught the eye of the public. At that time, Shah was serving as the home minister of Gujarat.
  • Later, some media houses also claimed that Lalit never represented Amit Shah in the extrajudicial murder cases, claiming it was Ram Jethmalani who had argued for Shah in the SC. [5]The Times of India
  • In 2014, he came under public scrutiny when his name was recommended for the position of a Judge in the SC in the aftermath of a controversy involving senior advocate Gopal Subramanium. After the Union Law Ministry turned down the elevation of Subramanium and cleared the names of three others, Subramanium withdrew his consent to be elevated to the Supreme Court claiming that the BJP was hampering his elevation. Subramanium accused the Modi government of ordering CBI to “scrounge” for “dirt” against him as he had assisted the SC in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. Thereafter, Lalit was nominated in place of Subramanium and his nomination was approved by the Modi government in August 2014. Lalit’s elevation was deemed as BJP ‘s favour towards him for representing Shah in the extrajudicial murder cases. When Lalit was named as the successor of CJI  N.V. Ramana in 2021, many took to their social media to criticize him alleging that BJP had favoured his elevation as an SC judge in 2014 because he had represented Amit Shah in the extrajudicial murder cases.

  • On 13 August 2014, when Lalit was elevated to the position of Judge of the Supreme Court of India, he became only the sixth lawyer to be directly elevated from the Bar to the Supreme Court Bench.
  • U. U. Lalit has served as a Member of the Supreme Court of India Legal Services Committee for two terms. In May 2021, Lalit became the Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).
  • In June 2022, UU Lalit and his wife, Amita Uday Lalit, remarried in a tribal wedding ceremony in Araku, Andhra Pradesh.

    UU Lalit with his wife, Amita Uday Lalit, dancing at their tribal wedding ceremony in Araku, Andhra Pradesh

    UU Lalit with his wife, Amita Uday Lalit, dancing at their tribal wedding ceremony in Araku, Andhra Pradesh

  • He is a teetotaller. [6]The Financial Express
  • On 27 August 2022, Justice Uday Umesh Lalit took oath as the 49th Chief Justice of India by President Droupadi Murmu in Rashtrapati Bhavan, becoming the second direct appointee from the Bar to be appointed as the CJI.

    U. U. Lalit swearing in as the 49th Chief Justice of India in the presence of President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 27 August 2022

    U. U. Lalit swearing in as the 49th Chief Justice of India in the presence of President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 27 August 2022

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