NEW DELHI, Sept 28: Justice H L Dattu, who has been heading the bench monitoring probe into the 2G scam, was today sworn in as the next Chief Justice of India by President Pranab Mukherjee and will have a tenure of 14 months.
63-year-old Justice Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu, the senior-most Supreme Court judge, took oath at a brief ceremony held at the chandeliered Durbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
He will have a tenure of 14 months and will retire on December 2, 2015.
Vice President Hamid Ansari, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, M Venkaiah Naidu, Ananth Kumar and BJP veteran L K Advani were among those present at the ceremony.
Congress leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Rajeev Shulka were the only prominent opposition leaders who attended the programme.
Justice Lodha, who retired yesterday as the CJI, senior judges of the Supreme Court, High Court, retired judges and members of the Bar were also present.
Justice Dattu has been heading the bench monitoring investigations into the 2G spectrum scam.
“I will request for blessing of all citizens of this country to give me courage and confidence to take this institution of mine to the highest stride,” he had said earlier this month when the file relating to his appointment reached the Prime Minister’s Office.
“Mine is the best institution in the world,” he had said.
However, the judge, who started his legal profession from Karnataka, had refused to comment on the controversy surrounding the attempt to scrap the collegium system of appointment of judges for higher judiciary.
He joined the Supreme Court as a judge in December 2008. Born on December 13, 1950, he enrolled as an advocate in 1975 and began practising in Bangalore and dealt with all types of matters — civil, criminal, tax and constitutional cases.
From 1983 onwards, he appeared in various capacities before the Karnataka High Court, including as a Government pleader for Sales Tax Department, standing counsel for Income Tax Department and later as a Government advocate. After being designated as a senior standing counsel for I-T Department in 1995, Justice Dattu was elevated as a judge of the Karnataka High Court.
He was elevated as the Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court in February 2007 and shortly afterwards shifted in the same capacity to the Kerala High Court.
He is the second apex court judge to take oath as the Chief Justice of India this year. Justice Lodha took oath in April this year.
Meanwhile, Justice Dattu today said that he will sit as a “common man” on the Bench and assured citizens that there is no class difference in handling of cases.
“I will sit as a common man on the Bench,” was how the 42nd CJI described his job as the head of the Judiciary.
“At the end of the day it is the last and final court of the country. Whether it is a judge or the people we give lot of attention as we know how much citizens pay attention,” the CJI, who will have a tenure of 14 months and will retire on December 2, 2015, said during an informal interaction this evening at his residence with legal reporters.
Justice Dattu said work load in the apex court has been on the rise.”Be it a bail matter or that of an immoveable property or else we have to be more responsible,” he said.
Justice Dattu, who is handling the case relating to a plea for keeping CBI Director Ranjit Sinha away from the 2G spectrum scam probe, for his alleged nexus with high- profile accused, said “this is a court which makes no distinction between common man and others”.
As CJI, Justice Dattu, who will be heading a bench dealing with the issues arising out of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and creation of new State of Telangana, said a judge of the apex court has to work for around 16 hours a day and for him the best stress buster is “carnatic music and usual dose of south Indian coffee”.(PTI)
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