Sharad Arvind Bobde


Sharad Arvind Bobde is an Indian judge serving as the 47th and current Chief Justice of India.
He is a former Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court. He is also serving as the Chancellor of Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai; University of Delhi and Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur. He has a tenure of eight years in the Supreme Court of India and is due to retire on 23 April 2021.

Personal Life

Bobde comes from a Nagpur-based family. His great-grandfather Ramachandra Pant Bobde, a Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin was a noted lawyer in Chandrapur between 1880 and 1900. The family later moved to Nagpur. His grandfather Shrinivas Ramachandra Bobde was also a lawyer. Bobde's father Arvind Shrinivas Bobde was advocate-general of Maharashtra in 1980 and 1985.
Sharad Bobde is an avid nature lover, photographer, music lover, biker and is a vintage automobile aficionado. He also loves old artifacts. Bobde's elder brother late Vinod Arvind Bobde was a senior Supreme Court lawyer and a constitutional expert. He completed B.A. and LL.B. Degrees from Nagpur University.

Career

Sharad Bobde did his schooling at St. Francis De'Sales High School, Nagpur. He completed his graduation from St. Francis De Sales College, Nagpur and studied Law at Dr. Ambedkar Law College, Nagpur University in 1978. He enrolled as an advocate on 13 September 1978, practiced at the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court with appearances before the principal seat at Bombay and before the Supreme Court of India and became Senior Advocate in 1998.
Bobde was appointed as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court on 29 March 2000, and subsequently promoted to Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on 16 October 2012 before being elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court of India on 12 April 2013.
He was appointed as the 47th Chief Justice of India on 18 November 2019, succeeding Ranjan Gogoi after his retirement.

Notable Judgements

Ayodhya Dispute

Justice Bobde was part of the five-judge constitutionl 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 and the 1949 desecration of the Babri Masjid was in violation of law.

Aadhaar

A three judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, comprising Bobde, Jasti Chelameswar, and Chokkalingam Nagappan, ratified an earlier order of the Supreme Court and clarified that no Indian citizen without an Aadhaar 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 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 L. Nageswara Rao in 2017, upheld the ban by the Karnataka Government of a book by Mate Mahadevi on the ground 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.