Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud (born 11 November 1959) is an Indian jurist, who is the 50th and Current chief justice of India serving since November 2022. He was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of India in May 2016. He has also previously served as the chief justice of the Allahabad High Court from 2013 to 2016 and as a judge of the Bombay High Court from 2000 to 2013. He is also a former executive chairperson (ex officio) of the National Legal Services Authority.
The only child of India's longest-serving chief justice, Y. V. Chandrachud, he was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University and has practiced as a lawyer for Sullivan & Cromwell and in the Bombay High Court.
He has been part of benches that delivered landmark judgments such as the Ram Janmabhoomi verdict, Privacy verdict, decriminalization of homosexuality and Sabarimala case. He has visited the universities of Mumbai, Oklahoma, Harvard, Yale and others as a professor.
Early life and education
Dhananjaya Chandrachud was born in the Chandrachud family on 11 November 1959. His father Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud, was the longest serving chief justice of India. and his mother, Prabha, was a classical musician who sang for All India Radio.
After attending the Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai and St. Columba's School, Delhi, he graduated with honours in economics and mathematics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi in 1979. He then obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Faculty of Law at the University of Delhi in 1982, followed by a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School in 1983. He was awarded the prestigious Inlaks Scholarship, offered to Indian citizens pursuing graduate education abroad, and received the Joseph H. Beale Prize at Harvard. He stayed at Harvard to complete a Doctorate of Juridical Science, which he finished in 1986. His doctoral dissertation was on affirmative action where he considered the law in a comparative framework.
Career
Chandrachud studied law at Delhi University in 1982 at a time when few jobs were available to young law graduates. He worked for a while, as a junior advocate assisting lawyers and judges, including drafting some briefs for Fali Nariman. After graduating from Harvard, Chandrachud first worked at the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell. He described this experience as "sheer fluke" due to the strong pecking order that existed at that time, and a strong bias against hiring Indians and men from developing countries. Upon returning to India, he practiced law at the Supreme Court of India and the Bombay High Court. He was designated a Senior Advocate by the Bombay High Court in June 1998. That year, he was appointed an Additional Solicitor General of India, a role he held until his appointment as a Judge.
He became a judge at the Bombay High Court on 29 March 2000 and served there as a judge until his appointment as Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court. During this time, he was also Director of the Maharashtra Judicial Academy. He was chief justice of the Allahabad High Court from 31 October 2013 until his appointment to the Supreme Court of India on 13 May 2016. Since 24 April 2021 he has been a part of the Collegium of the Supreme Court of India, which is a body composed of the five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court of India responsible for the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court of India and all the High Courts. On 17 October 2022, he was nominated the chief justice of India designate and after the retirement of the then chief justice, Uday Umesh Lalit, he was sworn in as the 50th Chief Justice of India on 9 November 2022.
Apart from his judicial service, Justice Chandrachud was also a visiting professor of comparative constitutional law at the University of Mumbai and University of Oklahoma College of Law in the United States. He has lectured at the Australian National University, Deakin University, Melbourne Law School, Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai‘i and the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.
Notable judgments
During his Supreme Court service, he has been on the highest number of constitutional benches (five judges or more) constituted to hear matters on constitutional questions. During his tenure at the Supreme Court, he has delivered judgements on Indian constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, human rights, gender justice, public interest litigations, commercial law and criminal law.
