Sharad Arvind Bobde (born 24 April 1956) is an Indian judge who served as the 47th

Chief Justice of India The chief justice of India ( IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation ...

from 18 November 2019 to 23 April 2021. He is a former Chief Justice of the

Madhya Pradesh High Court The Madhya Pradesh High Court is the High Court of the state of Madhya Pradesh which is located in Jabalpur. It was established as the Nagpur High Court on 2 January 1936 by Letters Patent dated 2 January 1936, issued under Section 108 the '' ...

. He is also serving as the Chancellor of Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai and

Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur Maharashtra National Law University Nagpur (MNLU) (also known as National Law University, Nagpur or NLU Nagpur) is a National Law University and a public law school established by the government through the Maharashtra National Law University ...

. He had a tenure of eight years in the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India (IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

and retired on 23 April 2021. On 24 April 2021,

N. V. Ramana Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana ( uːtalapaːʈi venkaʈa ɾamaɳa born 27 August 1957) is a former Indian judge and journalist who served as the 48th Chief Justice of India. Previously, he was a judge on the Supreme Court of India, chief justice ...

succeeded him as the

CJI The chief justice of India (IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation w ...

Family and early life

Bobde comes from a

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...

-based family. His great-grandfather Ramachandra Pant Bobde, a

Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin Deshastha Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and northern area of the state of Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Bra ...

was a noted lawyer in

Chandrapur Chandrapur (earlier known as ''Chanda'', the official name until 1964) is a city and a municipal corporation in Chandrapur district, Maharashtra state, India. It is the district headquarters of Chandrapur district. Chandrapur is a fort cit ...

(erstwhile Chanda) between 1880 and 1900. The family later moved to

. His grandfather Shrinivas Ramachandra Bobde was also a lawyer. Bobde's father Arvind Shrinivas Bobde was advocate-general of Maharashtra in 1980 and 1985. Bobde's elder brother late Vinod Arvind Bobde was a senior Supreme Court lawyer and a constitutional expert.

Education

Bobde did his schooling at St. Francis De'Sales High School, Nagpur. He completed his graduation from

St. Francis De Sales College St Francis de Sales College is a Reception to Year 12 Catholic co-educational school located in Mount Barker, South Australia. History The college was established in 1902 by the Sisters of Mercy, under the name St. Scholastica binding the Young ...

, Nagpur and studied law at Dr. Ambedkar Law College,

Nagpur University Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), formerly Nagpur University, is a public state university located in Nagpur, Maharashtra. It is one of India's oldest universities, as well as the second oldest in Maharashtra. It is named ...

Career

He enrolled as an advocate on 13 September 1978, practiced at the Nagpur Bench of

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ...

with appearances before the principal seat at Bombay and before the

and became Senior Advocate in 1998. Bobde was appointed an additional judge of the

on 29 March 2000, and subsequently promoted to Chief Justice of the

on 16 October 2012 before being elevated as a judge of the

on 12 April 2013. He was appointed the 47th Chief Justice of India on 18 November 2019, succeeding

Ranjan Gogoi Ranjan is a name. 'Ran' means Battle and 'jan' means public, in olden days this name was given to generous kings who fight battles for the rights of people. Ranjan may also refer to: * Ranjan (actor) (1918–1983) (real name Ramanarayana Venkatara ...

. He became the only CJI to not recommend a single name of a judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court of India, in his tenure of 1 year and 5 months. He wrote 68 judgments as judge on the Supreme Court. However, he sat on the bench for 547 cases. He has effectively written 8.5 judgments per year. The subject he has written the judgments on in the Supreme Court is Criminal Law, with 29 judgments.

Notable judgements and opinions

Ayodhya dispute

Justice Bobde was part of the five-judge constitutional bench which heard and delivered the judgment dated November 9, 2019 on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case. The bench unanimously ordered the construction of a Hindu Temple in the disputed site, while ruling that the

Demolition of the Babri Masjid The demolition of the Babri Masjid was illegally carried out on 6 December 1992 by a large group of activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organisations. The 16th-century Babri Masjid in the city of Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, had ...

and the 1949 desecration of the

Babri Masjid Babri Masjid ( IAST: Bābarī Masjid; meaning ''Mosque of Babur'') was a mosque in Ayodhya, India, at a site believed by many Hindus to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Rama. It has been a focus of dispute between the Hindu and Muslim commun ...

was in violation of law.

Aadhaar

A three judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, comprising Bobde,

Jasti Chelameswar Jasti Chelameswar (born 23 June 1953) is the former Judge of Supreme Court of India. He retired on 22 June 2018 as the second most senior Supreme court judge. Earlier, he was the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court and Gauhati High Court. He w ...

, and

Chokkalingam Nagappan Chokkalingam Nagappan (born 4 October 1951) is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India who served from September 2013 till his retirement in October 2016. Education Nagappan hails from Karur in Tamil Nadu and had his initial schooling ther ...

, ratified an earlier order of the Supreme Court and clarified that no Indian citizen without an

Aadhaar Aadhaar ( hi, आधार, ādhār, lit=base, foundation, bn, আধার) is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by the citizens of India and resident foreign nationals who have spent over 182 days in twelve ...

card can be deprived of basic services and government subsidies.

Anti-abortion

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, comprising Bobde and

L. Nageswara Rao Lavu Nageswara Rao is a former Judge of Supreme Court of India. He is the 7th person elevated directly from the bar to the Supreme Court and was sworn in on May 13, 2016. He was a Senior advocate and a former Additional Solicitor General of I ...

in 2017, rejected a woman's plea seeking termination of her foetus, based on the medical board's report that the 26-week-old foetus had a chance of survival.

Religious feelings

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, comprising Bobde and

in 2017, upheld the ban by the Karnataka Government of a book by Mate Mahadevi on the grounds that it outraged the religious feelings of Lord Basavanna's followers.

Environment

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, comprising Bobde, T. S. Thakur and Arjan Kumar Sikri in 2016, in relation to the extreme air pollution in the National Capital Region, suspended the sales of fire crackers in the region.

Marital rape

While commenting on

marital rape Marital rape or spousal rape is the act of sexual intercourse with one's spouse without the spouse's consent. The lack of consent is the essential element and need not involve physical violence. Marital rape is considered a form of domestic ...

, Bobde remarked that when a man and a woman live as husband and wife, that act of sexual intercourse between them could not be called rape.

Rape of a minor

Bobde was hearing an appeal against anticipatory bail given to a person accused of raping a minor. During oral arguments Bobde asked the defendant "Will you marry her?". Following this exchange, women's rights and progressive groups called Bobde to step down for asking the accused rapist to marry the victim to avoid punishment.

Appointment of High Court Judges

A three-judge bench of CJI Bobde and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Surya Kant issued binding directions to streamline the appointment of high court judges, within specified timelines.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bobde, Sharad 1956 births Living people 20th-century Indian judges 21st-century Indian judges Chief Justices of the Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief justices of India Judges of the Bombay High Court Justices of the Supreme Court of India Marathi people Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University alumni Scholars from Nagpur