India will get its first Chief Justice from the Sikh community in 2017 as Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar will be sworn in as new CJI on Jan 4, 2017. The process for his appointment as the new CJI will be set in motion by current CJI TS Thakur.
This is in concordance with the CJI being succeeded by the senior most SC judge.
Justice Thakur retires on January 3. In his letter to law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Justice Thakur described Justice Khehar as a competent and worthy successor.
With this, 64-year-old Khehar has become the first CJI besides President Giani Zail Singh and PM Manmohan Singh to occupy the top posts as a Sikh in the nation.
Justice Khehar will have a tenure from Jan 4 to Aug 28.
He was known for negating the National Judicial Appointments Commission.
This body was set up by constitutional amendment unanimously passed by Parliament to select judges for the SC and HCs.
Justice Khehar also headed a bench which created history by restoring the Congress government headed by Nabam Tuki to power in Arunachal Pradesh even after it was dismissed and President's Rule was imposed.
Know Justice Khehar- Graduation: 1974
- Post graduation: 1977 from Panjab University
- LLM Degree in 1979.
- Started practice in Punjab and Haryana HC and designated senior advocate in 1995.
- He oversaw removal of two judges - SC judge V Ramaswamy and Chief Justice of Karnataka P D Dinakaran.
- In the Ramaswamy case, he appeared as counsel for one of the MPs who supported Ramaswamy before the inquiry panel headed by Justice P B Sawant.
- In the Dinakaran case, he as Chief Justice of Uttarakhand HC headed the inquiry panel.
