Justice NV Ramana has been sworn in as the 48th Chief Justice of India as CJI SA Bobde retired on April 23.

Biography-

On August 27, 1957, Justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana was born into an agrarian family in the village of Ponnavaram, Andhra Pradesh.
On February 10, 1983, he enrolled as an Advocate. He specializes in constitutional, criminal, service, and interstate river law.
He has also served as Panel Counsel for various government organizations.
On June 27, 2000, he was appointed as a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, and he also served as Acting Chief Justice and Additional Advocate General of Andhra Pradesh.
Justice Ramana was elevated as Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court on September 2, 2013, and was later elevated as Judge of the Supreme Court of India.

Women-centric judgments and observations

1. A campaign for ‘Empowering Women through Legal Awareness’ was launched by the Supreme Court judge and Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) Justice NV Ramana, on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day.
2. In January 2020, a bench comprising Justices NV Ramana and Surya Kant observed that a woman homemaker’s work was worth financial compensation and needed to be recognized. The court increased the compensation amount to Rs 33.20 lakh in view of the deceased woman’s contribution to housework.

Landmark Judgments-

1. Md. Anwar v. State of NCT of Delhi, 2020: The three-judge bench of NV Ramana, SA Nazeer, and Surya Kant held that in order to successfully claim mental unsoundness as a defense under Section 84 of the IPC, the accused must show by a preponderance of probabilities that he or she suffered from a serious mental disease or infirmity that affected the individual’s ability to distinguish right from wrong.
2. Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India, 2020: A three-judge bench consisting of NV Ramana, R Subhash Reddy, and BR Gavai ordered the Jammu and Kashmir administration to review all orders restricting telecom and internet services in the state within a week and put them in the public domain.
3. Roger Mathew v. South India Bank Ltd., 2019: The validity of Section 184 of the Finance Act, 2017, was upheld by a five-judge bench led by Justice Ramana. The court decided that the Section does not suffer from an excess of legislative delegation. The Tribunal, Appellate Tribunal, and Other Authorities (Qualifications, Experience, and Other Conditions of Service of Members) Rules, 2017, enacted under Section 184 of the Finance Act, 2017, was struck down.
4. Central Public Information Officer v. Subhash Chandra Agarwal, 2019: The Constitution Bench of Ranjan Gogoi, CJ, NV Ramana, Dr. DY Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta, and Sanjiv Khanna, JJ, has ruled that the Chief Justice of India’s office is subject to the Right to Information Act.
5. Jindal Stainless Ltd v. State of Haryana, 2017: By a 7:2 majority, a nine-judge court upheld the validity of state-imposed entry taxes on goods imported from other states, implying that states are well within their rights to design their fiscal legislation.
6. Adi Saiva Sivachariyargal Nala Sangam v. Government of TN, 2016: The appointment of Archakas in temples would have to be made in accordance with the Agamas, according to their due identification and compliance with the Constitutional mandates and principles, as held by a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and NV Ramana. Exclusion or inclusion of the Archakas would not violate Article 14 if it was not based on caste, birth, or other constitutionally unacceptable criteria.