Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar (64) was on Wednesday sworn in as the 44th Chief Justice of India by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan here. He succeeded Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and is the first CJI from the Sikh community.
Justice Thakur demitted office yesterday, and had last month recommended the name of Justice Khehar, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, to be his successor.
Justice Khehar assumed office as an apex court judge on September 13, 2011. He will head the Indian judiciary for a little less than eight months before retiring on August 27. Justice JS Khehar has headed two Constitution Benches of the apex court, one that had revived the Collegium system of appointing higher judiciary judges and the other that restored the Congress government headed by Chief Minister Nabam Tuki in Arunachal Pradesh.He was associated with the impeachment proceedings of apex court Justice V Ramaswami and Karnataka HC Chief Justice PD Dinakaran.
