New Delhi: Supreme Court's senior-most judge Justice Tirath Singh Thakur was today sworn in as the 43rd Chief Justice of India (CJI) by President Pranab Mukherjee at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
63-year old Justice Thakur took oath in the name of God at a brief ceremony in the imposing Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues and former Chief Justices, among others.
"Justice Tirath Singh Thakur was sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India in a ceremony held today at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He made and subscribed to the oath of office before the President," a statement from Rashtrapati Bhavan said.
Justice Thakur took over from Justice H L Dattu who retired yesterday. Born on January 4, 1952, he would have the tenure as CJI for a little over one year and would retire on January 4, 2017.
His mother Saraswati Thakur and other family members were present at the ceremony.
As a Supreme Court judge, Justice Thakur headed the bench which had delivered the verdict to reform cricket controlling body BCCI in the wake of allegations of betting and spot-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League. Justice Thakur had also headed the bench which ordered probe into the multi-crore chit fund scam in eastern India, also known as Saradha scam.
Son of former Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Devi Das Thakur, a well-known jurist and judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Justice Thakur enrolled as a Pleader in October, 1972 and joined the Chamber of 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 appointed as a permanent judge in September 1995 and transferred to the Delhi High Court in July 2004.
Justice Thakur was appointed as 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.
Those present at the oath taking ceremony included Cabinet Ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swarj, Arun Jaitley, D V Sadananda Gowda, Harsh Vardhan, Smriti Irani, and senior BJP leader L K Advani.
Legal luminaries including former Chief Justices H L Dattu, K G Balakrishnan, S H Kapadia, Rajendra Mal Lodha, besides Chief Justices of various high courts, leading jurists Soli Sorabjee, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi also attended the ceremony.
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 also present.
