Justice T S Thakur sworn in as 43rd Chief Justice of India
03 Dec 2015
Justice Tirath Singh, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, was today sworn in as the 43rd Chief Justice of India by President Pranab Mukherjee at a brief ceremony at the Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The 63-year old Justice Thakur took over from Justice H L Dattu who retired yesterday.
The function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan 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 the Rashtrapati Bhavan said.
Born on 4 January 1952, Justice Thakur will have the tenure as CJI for a little over one year and would retire on 4 January 2017.
Justice Thakur is credited with cleaning up the country's cricket administration that was left in shambles after the IPL spot fixing scam.
It was a bench headed by Justice Thakur 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 Saradha chit fund 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 acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court on 9 April 2008 and on 11 August 2008 before 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 17 November 2009.
His mother Saraswati Thakur and other family members were present at the function.
Outgoing Chief Justice H L Dattu and former Chief Justices K G Balakrishnan, SH Kapadia, Rajendra Mal Lodha, in addition to the chief justices of various high courts, leading jurists Soli Sorabjee, attorney general Mukul Rohatgi were also present.
Justice Dattu praised Justice Thakur and said, "I have full confidence that our institution is in safe hands and will thrive with Justice Thakur at the helm of affairs."
The ceremony was also attended by cabinet ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, DV Sadananda Gowda, Harsh Vardhan, Smriti Irani, and senior BJP leader LK Advani attended the ceremony. Also present were the leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress party leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Delhi governor Najeeb Jung and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
