DIPAK MISRA TO BE SWORN IN AS INDIA’S 45TH CHIEF JUSTICE TODAY

NEWDELHI: Justice Dipak Misra is set to be sworn in as India’s 45th chief justice on Monday, a position that will give him the chance to take on several challenges for the country in general and the judiciary in particular.

Justice Misra, who takes over from JS Khehar, began his career on February 14, 1977, when he was enrolled as an advocate. He was appointed as an additional judge of the Orissa HC in 1996, and transferred to Madhya Pradesh a year later. In 2009, he became the chief justice of the Patna HC before moving to head Delhi HC in 2010. On October 10, 2011, Justice Misra was appointed to the Supreme Court.

With a tenure of nearly 14 months, Justice Misra will have an unenviable task of filling up vacancies in high courts and the Supreme Court. HCs in India are working with 56% strength, and the shortfall in SC will widen to six when PC Pant retires on Tuesday to leave only 25 judges in India’s apex court.

The contentious MOP (Memorandum of Procedure) continues to remain an unresolved issue between the government and the SC collegiums.

Soft-spoken but a man with steely resolve, Justice Misra has issued far-reaching orders, some of which have drawn criticism. His order making national anthem mandatory in movie halls ignited a debate on whether an increasingly aggressive brand of nationalist fervour was stifling civil liberties.

His verdict in a defamation case was similarly termed as regressive by advocates of freespeech.

But, the astuteness with which he got the NDA government to withdraw President’s Rule in Uttarakhand speaks to his wisdom as a judge.