Newly-appointed Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde on Monday sat on the dais in a courtroom with Chief Justice of Jamaica Bryan Sykes and senior-most Judge of Bhutan’s Supreme Court, Justice Kuenlay Tshering, a first for the head of the Indian apex court.
Justice Bobde, 63, was administered the oath of office by President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday.
He was congratulated by Bar leaders on being appointed as the 47th head of the Indian judiciary.
The CJI, who headed the bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant, started holding the court at 11.30 am and was first congratulated by Rakesh Khanna, the senor advocate and the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).
“We wish a fruitful and successful tenure to CJI Bobde,” the SCBA President said in the packed courtroom where his relatives and friends were also present.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the bail plea of jailed Congress leader P Chidambaram as the first case before the CJI who said he will look into the plea for urgent hearing.
Bobde will have a tenure of over 17 months as the CJI and is due to retire on April 23, 2021.
He was part of the recent historic Ayodhya verdict and the nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court that had held unanimously in August 2017 that the Right to Privacy was a constitutionally protected fundamental right in India.
