Khehar takes oath as CJI

JUSTICE JAGDISH Singh Khehar was on Wednesday sworn in as the 44th Chief Justice of India. President Pranab Mukherjee administered the oath of office and secrecy to Justice Khehar at the Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Justice Khehar took oath in English in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice-president Hamid Ansari.

As the convention called for, Chief Justice T S Thakur, who demitted office on January 3, had recommended to the government the name of Justice Khehar as his successor.

Justice Khehar, 64, is the first CJI from Sikh community. He will remain in office till August 28, 2017. He was elevated as a judge in the top court in September 2011.

Justice Khehar, while presiding over a Constitution Bench, had struck down the constitutional amendment to replace collegium with NJAC. “The sensitivity of selecting judges is so enormous, and the consequences of making inappropriate appointments so dangerous, that if those involved in the process of selection and appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, make wrongful selections, it may well lead the nation into a chaos of sorts,” he had said in his judgment.

He also headed the Constitution bench that set aside the imposition of President’s rule in Arunachal Pradesh, and outlined the role of the Governor. “The Governor must keep clear of any political horse-trading, and even unsavoury political manipulations, irrespective of the degree of their ethical repulsiveness. Who should or should not be a leader of a political party, is a political question, to be dealt with and resolved privately by the political party itself. The Governor cannot, make such issues, a matter of his concern,” he had held.

He was a part of the bench which had sent Sahara chief Subrata Roy to jail while hearing the matter relating to the refund of money invested by people in his two companies.