Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar was appointed as the 44th Chief Justice of India (CJI) by President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday. He will resume office from January 4, 2017, and will have a tenure of over seven months till August 28, 2017.
CJI TS Thakur recommended 64-year-old Khehar as the next CJI to the government on December 16, 2016. Thakur will retire on January 3 next year after having been in office for a year.
Khehar, who will be the first CJI from the Sikh community, had led the constitution bench of five judges in the Supreme Court that had struck down the Centre's controversial National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) law. He also headed the bench that had set aside the imposition of President's Rule in Arunachal Pradesh in January this year.
Khehar was also a part of the bench that had sent Sahara chief Subrata Roy to jail while hearing the matter related to the refund of money invested by people in his companies. He had also led the bench which had recently ruled that "equal pay for equal work" must be applied to daily wagers, casual and contractual employees.
Khehar, who assumed office as a Supreme Court judge on September 13, 2011, had recently said that the judiciary would remain within its Lakshman Rekha if the executive and the legislature abide by the constitutional norms and principles.
Justice Khehar's proposed appointment as the CJI was recently challenged by a lawyers' group who believed that his role as the lead judge on the NJAC bench has made him unfit for the post of the CJI, the Hindu reported. Advocate Prashant Bhushan had last week suggested that Khehar recused himself from hearing his client's PIL that sought an investigation into the documents that were retrieved during raids carried out at the offices of Sahara and Birla companies.
