Justice Surya Kant sworn in as chief justice of HP high court
SHIMLA Justice Surya Kant was sworn in as the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh high court on Friday.
He was administered the oath of office by governor Acharya Devvrat at a simple ceremony held at the Barnes Court (now Raj Bhawan).
Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, Vidhan Sabha speaker Rajiv Bindal, leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri and Haryana's education minister Ram Vilas Sharma were also present on the occasion. Besides, judges of the Himachal Pradesh high court along with retired judges were also present.
The ceremony took place at the Darbar Hall where chief secretary BK Agarwal read out the warrant of appointment issued by the President of India.
Justice Kant was born on February 10, 1962, in a middle class family of Hisar district in Haryana. He did his graduation in 1981 from the government post graduate college, Hisar and earned bachelor’s degree in law in 1984 from Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak.
He started practising law at the Hisar district court in 1984 and shifted to Chandigarh in 1985 to practice at the Punjab and Haryana high court.
He specialised in constitutional, service and civil matters.
Justice Kant represented a number of universities, boards, corporations, banks and the high court before earning the distinction of being appointed the youngest advocate general of Haryana on July 7, 2000.
He was designated as senior advocate in March, 2001. He held the office of advocate general Haryana, till his elevation as a permanent judge to the Punjab and Haryana high court on Janu ary 09, 2004.
He was nominated as a mem ber of the National Legal Services Authority on February 23, 2007 for two consecutive terms.