Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar: What you should know about the new Chief Justice of India

Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, who led the five-judge constitution bench in the Supreme Court which had struck down the controversial National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) Act for the appointment of judges, was on Tuesday recommended as the 44th Chief Justice of India. Chief Justice of India TS Thakur on Tuesday wrote a letter recommending the name of Khehar, who is the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court to be his successor. First CJI from the Sikh community Justice Khehar, 64, will be the first Chief Justice from the Sikh community and he will succeed CJI Thakur who will be demitting office on 3 January, 2017. [caption id=“attachment_3143906” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Justice Khehar. Twitter @AarushianaSingh[/caption] Having received his LLB and LLM from Punjab University, Chandigarh, Khehar was awarded Gold Medal for securing the first position in the university in LLM examination. Before being elevated as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh on 8 February, 1999, Khehar had practised before it as well as the Himachal Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court. He was twice appointed as the acting chief justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court from 2 August, 2008, and again from 17 November, 2009. He was elevated as chief justice of Uttarakhand High Court on 29 November, 2009. Later he was transferred as chief justice of Karnataka High Court. He was elevated as judge of the Supreme Court on 13 September, 2011. According to a report in Hindustan Times, lawyers and former judges of the Punjab and Haryana high court have described him as a hardworking and competent lawyer, a self-made person, who was destined to scale new heights. Khehar, who will be sworn in on 4 January, will hold the tenure for over seven months until 27 August, 2017. NJAC Considered to be a strong judge, Khehar presided over the constitution bench that junked the NJAC as unconstitutional holding that it intruded upon the independence of the judiciary. The government had sought to replace the existing collegium system for the appointment of judges to higher judiciary by the NJAC mechanism through the enactment of Constitution’s 99th amendment that had put in place NJAC and the NJAC Act, 2014. President’s Rule, Subrata Roy and more Khehar also presided over the five judges’ constitution bench that had quashed the then Arunachal Pradesh Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa’s decision to prepone the assembly session from January 2016 to December as it directed the restoration of ousted Chief Minister Nabam Tuki’s government. But subsequent political developments in Arunachal Pradesh took a different course. He was also a part of the bench which sent Sahara chief Subrata Roy to jail while hearing the matter relating to the refund of money invested by people in his two companies. Khehar also headed a bench which recently gave a significant verdict holding that the principle of ’equal pay for equal work’ has to be made applicable to those engaged as daily wagers, casual and contractual employees who perform the same duties as the regulars. Turf war between the judiciary and the executive While the turf war between the judiciary and the executive over the appointment of judges for higher judiciary has intensified, Khehar on the occasion of Constitution Day on 26 November had responded to the tirade from Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi by saying that the judiciary was working within its “lakshman rekha”. “Judiciary is mandated to shield all persons, citizens and non-citizens alike, against discrimination and abuse of State power. Liberty, equality and dignity of the citizen have flourished substantially in India due to the pro-active role of the judiciary in the country,” he had said. With inputs from agencies