Chief Justice of India Justice RM Lodha retired

The 41st Chief Justice of India (CJI), Rajendra Mal Lodha retired on 27 September 2014. He retired after serving as the CJI for five months.  

Rajendra Mal Lodha took charge of the office of the Chief Justice of India on 27 April 2014 after retirement of former CJI P Sathasivam. He was appointed as the Chief Justice of India after his name was recommended as the next CJI by Justice Sathasivam.

Justice Lodha’s most powerful verdict during his tenure as CJI was decision in the coal allocation scam. The Supreme Court bench headed by Lodha on 24 September 2014 scrapped 214 out of 218 coal blocks allocated between 1993 and 2010 by terming those allocations as arbitrary and illegal.

Rajendra Mal Lodha’s career in judicial field
• He enrolled himself with the Bar Council of Rajasthan in February 1973
• He practiced Law in Rajasthan High Court during which he dealt with all branches of law like constitutional, civil, company, criminal, taxation and labour
• In January 1994, he was elevated as a Permanent Judge of the Rajasthan High Court after which he was transferred to Bombay High Court, where he assumed the office in February 1994
• In 2007, he was transferred back to the Rajasthan High Court
• He had been the Administrative Judge of the Rajasthan High Court and was chairman of the State Judicial Academy
• On 13 May 2008, he was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Patna High Court from where he was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court on 17 December 2008