Rajendra Mal Lodha


Justice R. M. Lodha is a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. Before being elevated to the Supreme Court, he served as the Chief Justice of Patna High Court. He has also served as a judge in Rajasthan High Court and Bombay High Court. On 14 July 2015, the Supreme Court committee headed by RM Lodha suspended the owners of Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings from the Indian Premier League cricket tournament for a period of two years for alleged involvement in betting.

Early life

Rajendra Mal Lodha was born to Justice S K Mal Lodha, a former Judge of Rajasthan High Court. He completed his BSc and LLB at the Jodhpur University.

Career

In February 1973, he enrolled with the Bar Council of Rajasthan at Jodhpur. He moved to Jaipur in 1977 on formation of Jaipur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court. He was appointed as Central Government standing counsel at the Rajasthan High Court in 1990. On 31 January 1994, Lodha was elevated as a permanent judge of Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur. On 16 February 1994, he was transferred to Bombay High Court and served till 2007. He resumed office as a judge of Rajasthan High Court on 2 February 2007. On 13 May 2008, he was elevated as the Chief Justice of Patna High Court.
Lodha was appointed as the Chief Justice of India succeeding P Sathasivam on 11 April and assumed charge on 27 April 2014. Justice Lodha said that infusing greater transparency in the appointment of judges and initiating steps to bring down the backlog of 33,000,000 cases will be among his priorities.

Other positions held

These include: