Dipak Misra sworn in as Chief Justice of India
28 Aug 2017
Justice Dipak Misra has been sworn in as the 45th chief justice of India. President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office to Misra at a brief ceremony in the Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan.
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| President Ram Nath Kovind administering the oath of office to Justice Dipak Misra as the 45TH Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India at a Swearing-in-Ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan on 28 August 28 2017 |
Misra began his career on 14 February 1977, when he was enrolled as an advocate. He was appointed as an additional judge of the Orissa High Court in 1996, and transferred to Madhya Pradesh a year later. In 2009, he became the chief justice of the Patna High Court before moving to head Delhi HC in 2010.
Justice Mishra was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court on 10 October 2011.
With a tenure of nearly 14 months, Justice Misra has his work cut out - filing up judicial vacancies, dealing with contentious cases such as Ayodhya, Cauvery and women's right to enter the Sabarimala temple in Kerala etc.
He also has the contentious MOP (Memorandum of Procedure of appointment of judges) issue, a legacy from predecessor Khehar, to deal with.
The Supreme Court hasn't agreed to the security clause, which would allow the government to veto superior court appointments. The issue continues to remain unresolved between the government and the SC collegiums.
The high courts in India are working with 56 per cent strength, and the shortfall in the Supreme Court will widen to 6 when PC Pant retires on Tuesday to leave only 25 judges the apex court.
Soft-spoken but a man of steely resolve and some of his orders like making national anthem mandatory in movie halls had ignited a debate whether an increasingly aggressive brand of nationalist fervour was stifling civil liberties.
His verdict in a defamation case was similarly termed as regressive by advocates of free-speech.
It was Justice Deepak Misra who had agreed to give an early morning hearing when Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon, when his lawyers rushed to the court on the night of 29 July 2016.
He was equally resolute in his judgement when he asked the NDA government to withdraw President's rule in Uttarakhand.
