Who is Justice UU Lalit? From Amit Shah to Salman Khan, know all about key court battles fought by this jurist

The Supreme Court will now hear the Ayodhya case on January 29. Justice Uday Umesh Lalit recused himself from hearing the case after a lawyer pointed out that he had, appeared for one of the parties nearly two decades ago. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi was hearing the contentious Ram Temple case. In October last year, the Supreme Court had decided to take up the matter on January 4 before the “appropriate bench”. However, on January 4, the matter was adjourned till January 10 in the hearing the lasted less than a minute.

ALSO READ | Ayodhya land dispute: Hearing adjourned till January 29 after Justice UU Lalit recuses himself from case

Rajeev Dhawan, who brought up the matter of UU Lalit being a lawyer from Kalyan Singh, said that he had no objection to the judge hearing the Ayodhya case.

"I am bringing it to Your Lordships notice though we don’t have objection to him hearing the matter. It is entirely upto Your Lordships," Dhawan told the Supreme Court.

On September 27, 2017, a three-judge bench of the top court had rejected a plea seeking to refer to the five-judge Constitution Bench for reconsideration of its observations in the 1994 verdict that a mosque wasn't an integral part of Islam. The issue had arisen during the hearing of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.

Besides CJI, the other four justices of the Constitution Bench are in line to be the Chief Justice in the future. When justice Gogoi's term ends, his successor would be Justice Bobde followed by Justices Ramana, Lalit and Chandrachud.

ALSO READ | Protests outside Supreme Court after adjournment of Ayodhya land dispute case hearing

Who is Justice UU Lalit? 

1. Justice UU Lalit joined the bar in June 1983 and started practicing in the Supreme Court of India in 1986.
2. Justice UU Lalit became a judge of the Supreme Court on August 13, 2014, and is one of the last appointments made through the collegium system. Justice Lalit is the 6th senior advocate ever to be directly elevated to the Supreme Court. 
3. Uday U. Lalit has represented Prime Minister Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah in two high profile criminal cases involving the killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati in Gujarat. 
4. Justice U U Lalit has appeared for actor Salman Khan in the blackbuck poaching case.
5. He has appeared for Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh in a corruption case.