 Agencies
New Delhi, Dec 3: Senior-most Supreme Court judge Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, who delivered important verdicts including on BCCI reforms and Saradha scam, was today sworn in as 43rd Chief Justice of India by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Born on January 4, 1952, Justice Thakur will have a tenure as CJI for 13 months and would retire on January 4, 2017. He took over from Justice H L Dattu who retired yesterday.
63-year old Justice Thakur hit the spotlight following his judgement on reforming cricket controlling body Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the wake of allegations of betting and spot-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League.
He had also ordered probe into the multi-crore chit fund scam in eastern India, also known as Saradha scam.
Justice Thakur took oath at a brief ceremony in the imposing Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan which was attended by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues and former Chief Justices, among others.
His mother Saraswati Thakur and other family members were present at the function. Cabinet Ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, D V Sadananda Gowda, Harsh Vardhan, Smriti Irani, and senior BJP leader L K Advani among others attended the ceremony. Former Chief Justices H L Dattu, K G Balakrishnan, S H Kapadia, Rajendra Mal Lodha besides Chief Justices of various high courts, leading jurist Soli Sorabjee, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi were also present. Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Delhi Governor Najeeb Jung, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were among others who attended the function. Son of former Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Devi Das Thakur, who was also a judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Justice Thakur enrolled as a Pleader in October, 1972 and started assisting his father.
He was designated as a senior advocate in 1990. On February 16, 1994, he was appointed as an additional judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and transferred as a judge of the Karnataka High Court in March 1994.
He was made a permanent judge in September 1995 and transferred to the Delhi High Court in July 2004.
Justice Thakur became acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court on April 9, 2008 and on August 11, 2008, he took over as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court and assumed charge on November 17, 2009. Declining to respond to questions from reporters after the function, Justice Thakur said this was not the occasion and he would meet the media at a later stage. |
