Justice Bobde will be sworn in as Chief Justice on November 18 and will serve the post for around 18 months. He will retire on April 23, 2021.
Incumbent Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on October 18 had recommended Justice Bobde, the second senior-most judge, as his successor.
His career as Justice began on March 29, 2000 when he was appointed as Additional Judge in the Bombay High Court, and was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court on April 12, 2013.
His remarkable work took him to the high post and thereafter he was sworn in as Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on October 16, 2012. He was born on April 24, 1956 in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
He completed graduation and obtained a law degree from Nagpur University. He was enrolled on the roll of the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1978 and was designated as Senior Advocate in 1998.
Justice Bobde was part of the five-judge constitution bench hearing longest running Ayodhya land dispute case in which the judgement is still awaited. He was part of the in-house panel which has handled one of the most controversial cases related to allegations of sexual harassment against the incumbent Chief Justice.
This in-house bench headed by Justice Bobde has given a clean chit to Gogoi, saying "no substance" was found in the allegation levelled by a former employee.
Justice Gogoi was the 46th Chief Justice of India, who took charge on October 3, 2018 and will demit office on November 17.
Bobde, is the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court after Ranjan Gogoi, the current Chief Justice, who retires on November 17.
Justice Bobde acknowledged that the Ayodhya title dispute is a matter largely attached with the faith of millions, but the issue is also legal, therefore the apex court will deliver a judgment on it.
"I don't know of any similar dispute (Ayodhya matter) that has ever been heard by any court. It is a very important matter," he said.
Justice Bobde did not comment on the queries he posed before counsels of Hindu and Muslim sides in connection with the divinity of their respective faith. Though, he emphasized these questions were relevant and important to the case.
The first thing he did after the official announcement, Justice Bobde said: "I took my mother's blessing after the formal announcement."
Once he formally takes up the post as the Chief Justice of the country, Bobde emphasized he will be strengthening the legal apparatus for enabling easy access to justice for people in rural areas.
"NALSA is doing a great job on the issue of access to justice. I am a part of it. We will bring some positive changes in the system", said Justice Bobde.
The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), formed on in November 1995 under the authority of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987, provides free legal services to eligible candidates, and organises Lok Adalats for speedy resolution of cases.
Bobde referred to former Justices R.M. Lodha, B.M. Srikrishna, and Justice C.K. Thakkar, as the judges whom he considers to be his role models.
He also stressed on balancing between privacy and transparency. "Balance has to be struck between them," said Justice Bobde.
Justice Bobde, 63, succeeds Justice Ranjan Gogoi who demitted office on Sunday.
Justice Bobde took oath in English in the name of God at a brief ceremony held at the Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several senior ministers were present at the oath-taking ceremony. Former vice president Hamid Ansari and former prime minister Manmohan Singh were also present.
Justice Bobde had said that he would prefer a conservative approach on the issue of disclosing the Collegium's entire deliberations on the rejection of names for appointment in the higher judiciary.
In an interview to PTI after being appointed as the CJI last month, he had said that people's reputation cannot be sacrificed just to satisfy the desire of citizens to know.
On the issue of huge vacancies of judges in courts across the country and lack of judicial infrastructure, Justice Bobde had said that he wishes to take to the "logical end" the steps taken by his predecessor CJI Gogoi.
A five-judge constitution bench, of which Justice Bobde was also a part, rendered a unanimous verdict to put the curtains down on the vexatious Ayodhya land dispute which was pending in courts since 1950.
A nine-judge bench of the apex court headed by the then CJI J S Khehar and which included Justice Bobde had held unanimously in August 2017 that the Right to Privacy was a constitutionally protected fundamental right in India.
Justice Bobde will have a tenure of over 17 months as the CJI and is due to retire on April 23, 2021.
Hailing from a family of lawyers from Maharashtra, he is the son of eminent senior advocate Arvind Shriniwas Bobde.
Justice Bobde also headed a three-member in-house committee which gave a clean chit to CJI Gogoi on a sexual harassment complaint against him by a former apex court staffer. The committee also included Justices Indira Banerjee and Indu Malhotra.
Justice Bobde was part of the three-judge bench which in 2015 clarified that no citizen of India without an Aadhaar card can be denied basic services and government services.
Recently, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Bobde directed the Committee of Administrators (CoA) headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai, appointed by it for the purpose of running the BCCI administration, to demit office paving the way for elected members to run the affairs of the cricket board.
Born on April 24, 1956, in Nagpur, Maharashtra, Justice Bobde completed Bachelor of Arts and LLB degrees from Nagpur University. He was enrolled as an advocate of the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1978.
Justice Bobde practised law at the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court with appearances at Bombay before the Principal Seat and before the Supreme Court for over 21 years.
He was designated as a senior advocate in 1998.
Justice Bobde was elevated to the Bombay High Court on March 29, 2000, as Additional Judge and sworn in as Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on October 16, 2012.
He was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on April 12, 2013.