Nuthhalapati Venkata Ramana: Former Chief Justice of India

In his nearly four-decade legal career, Justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana has served as panel counsel for numerous government agencies as well as at least two high courts and the Supreme Court.

Who is NV Ramana?

President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Justice NV Ramana as the 48th Chief Justice of India (CJI). Justice Ramana was recommended by outgoing Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde. Justice Ramana took oath at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 24 April 2021. He retired on 26 August 2022 and he was succeeded by Justice U.U. Lalit.

In his nearly four-decade legal career, Justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana has practiced law in two high courts, the Supreme Court, numerous administrative tribunals, and as a panel attorney for numerous government agencies, with a focus on constitutional, criminal, service, and interstate river laws. Before being appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of India, he also held the positions of acting chief justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and chief justice of the Delhi High Court.

Early Life

On August 27, 1957, NV Ramana was born in a farming family in the Ponnavaram village of Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. Ramana spent a brief period of time working as a journalist for a prestigious Telugu daily before becoming a full-fledged attorney. In 1983, he enrolled as advocate. He then worked on civil, criminal, constitutional, labor, service, and election law cases in the Andhra Pradesh High Court, the Central and Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunals, and the Supreme Court of India.

Later, Justice Ramana served as the additional attorney general of Andhra Pradesh, the additional standing counsel for the federal government, and the standing counsel for the Indian Railways in the Central Administrative Tribunal in Hyderabad. He was appointed a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in the summer of 2000, and he kept that position until taking on the role of interim chief justice for two months in 2013. He was appointed as the chief justice of Delhi before being elevated to the Supreme Court on September 2 of the same year.

Career of CJI NV Ramana

His career can be discussed under the following headins:

Journalism and Litigation

Ramana worked as a reporter for the Eenadu newspaper between 1979 and 1980. On February 10, 1983, he applied to become an advocate. He worked as an attorney in the Supreme Court of India, the Central and Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunals, and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, handling cases involving civil, criminal, labor, service, and election law. Additionally, he dealt with several constitutional issues, notably Indian federal river disputes. Ramana served as an attorney for a number of government agencies during this time, including the Central Government and the Indian Railways, both of which were assigned to the Central Administrative Tribunal in Hyderabad as additional standing counsel. Additionally, he served as Andhra Pradesh's Additional Advocate General.

Judicial

On June 27, 2000, Ramana was appointed as a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. He was named Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court on September 2, 2013, and then on February 17, 2014, he was appointed as a judge to the Supreme Court of India. Sharad Arvind Bobde, the Supreme Court's outgoing Chief Justice, made the recommendation for him. Ramana was appointed by former President Ram Nath Kovind to be the 48th Chief Justice on April 6, 2021. He took the oath of office at Rashtrapati Bhavan on April 24, 2021. He retired on August 26, 2022. The justice U.U. Lalit succeeded him.

Chief Justice of India

The number of vacancies on the Supreme Court and high courts decreased to their lowest level since 2016 during his tenure as chief justice due to a rise in judicial appointments. He gave the media special online access so they could watch judicial proceedings. He also had a significant role in several instances as a judge. Some notable ones include: suspending the application of the Sedition Act; revoking Ashish Mishra's release on bail in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case; establishing a panel to look into the Pegasus case, in which the bench found that the Union government did not cooperate with the investigation; and his ruling that a woman's domestic work is equivalent to that of an office-going man.

• As Chief Justice, he appointed a three-judge panel to investigate a petition challenging a 2013 Supreme Court decision that found political parties' distribution of personal items such as televisions and laptop computers to be not corrupt and to fall within the directive principles, despite the petitioners' claim that such distribution amounts to "irrational freebies."

He came under fire for failing to request a court review in any of the cases that needed a constitutional bench. 53 of these cases were still open when he retired. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019, the Electoral Bonds Program, the repeal of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, and the hijab ban in Karnataka are just a few of the significant matters still pending.

FAQs

Q1. Do judges pay income tax?

Ans. Judges, like all other government employees, are required to pay income tax on their earnings. Income earned by a judge from their employment as a judge is taxable income that need to be reported on their income tax return.

Q2. What was the mode of operation (hearing the case) during Chief Justice Ramana’s tenure?

Ans. When Justice Ramana took over the court, because of COVID lockdown, the court was operating mostly virtually.

Q3. How many High Courts Justice Ramana served before becoming the Judge of the Supreme Court of India?

Ans. Two High Courts.

Justice Ramana served as the judge of Andhra Pradesh High Court and as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, before appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court.