Jagdish Singh Khehar – First Ever Sikh To Become The “Chief Justice Of India”

An LLM from Panjab University and enrolled as an advocate in 1979. Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar will soon take over as the next Chief Justice of India. His appointment will be a landmark moment as he will be the first Chief Justice from the Sikh community. He is set to succeed CJI Thakur who will be demitting office on January 3, 2017. Thakur had on Tuesday recommended Justice Khehar’s name for the position. Justice Khehar’s tenure will be a very short one which will begin on January 4 and end in over seven months on August 27, 2017.

1. Jagdish singh khehar 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.

2. Justice Jagdish s khehar was twice appointed as the acting chief justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court from 2 August, 2008, and again from 17 November, 2009. 

 

 

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. He earned a place in history when the five-judge bench headed by him shot down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), a body being set up through a constitutional amendment unanimously passed by Parliament to select judges for the SC and HCs.

6. Justice Khehar also headed a bench which recently gave a significant verdict holding that the principal 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. He is currently heading the special 2G bench.

 

 

7. 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.

8. According to the 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.

 

 

9. Justice Khehar’s tenure will be a very short one which will begin on January 4 and end in over seven months on August 27, 2017.

10. Interestingly, 64-year-old Justice Khehar’s appointment as CJI would mean persons from the Sikh community getting to occupy the three most important posts in Indian democracy over a period of time — President (Giani Zail Singh), PM (Manmohan Singh) and CJI.