Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar will soon take over as the next Chief Justice of India. His appointment will be a landmark moment as he will be the first Chief Justice from the Sikh community. He is set to succeed CJI Thakur who will be demitting office on January 3, 2017.
Thakur had on Tuesday recommended Justice Khehar’s name for the position.
However, Justice Khehar’s tenure will be a very short one which will begin on January 4 and end in over seven months on August 27, 2017.
Many of you might have heard the name of this senior-most judge of the Supreme Court of India in several high profile cases. Some of the recent cases where he presided over the bench were the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) matter, the imposition of President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh, and conviction of Sahara chief Subrata Roy.
One of his most famous quotes was that judiciary is working within its “lakshmanrekha”. This was a reply given to Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi amid the turf war between the judiciary and the executive over appointment of judges for higher judiciary.
He was the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha appointed Inquiry Committee for investigating the grounds on which the removal of Justice PD Dinakaran, Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, was sought for alleged corruption.
An LLM from Panjab University, he was enrolled as an advocate in 1979. Here is a look at his judicial career:
– Assumed office as Judge of the Supreme Court on September 13, 2011.
– Became the Chief Justice of High Court of Karnataka on August 8, 2010.
– Was the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court
– Was the acting Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana HC twice with effect from August 02, 2008, and again, from November 17, 2009
– Became a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on February 8, 1999.
– Appointed as Additional Advocate General in Punjab in January 1992 and then senior Standing Counsel of Chandigarh.
He was designated as senior advocate in February, 1995 and remained standing counsel for Universities, Corporate Bodies and a large number of companies and cooperative
organisations.
