In February 1973, he enrolled with the Bar Council of Rajasthan at Jodhpur. He moved to
Jaipur in 1977 on formation of Jaipur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court. He was appointed
Central Government standing counsel at the Rajasthan High Court in 1990. On 31 January 1994, Lodha was elevated as a permanent judge of Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur. On 16 February 1994, he was transferred to Bombay High Court and served till 2007. He resumed office as a judge of Rajasthan High Court on 2 February 2007. On 13 May 2008, he was elevated as the Chief Justice of the
Patna High Court. Lodha was appointed the Chief Justice of India succeeding
P Sathasivam on 11 April and assumed charge on 27 April 2014. Justice Lodha said that infusing greater transparency in the appointment of judges and initiating steps to reduce the backlog of 33,000,000 pending cases would be among his priorities. Over the course of his Supreme Court tenure, Lodha authored 273 judgments. His father Srikrishna Mal Lodha was former judge of
Rajasthan High Court and uncles
Chand Mal Lodha and
Guman Mal Lodha were chief justices of different high courts. ==Other positions held==