The Hindu : National : Lahoti takes over as Chief Justice of India

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Wednesday, Jun 02, 2004

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National

Lahoti takes over as Chief Justice of India

By J. Venkatesan

Ramesh Chandra Lahoti being greeted by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, after being sworn in as Chief Justice of India by the President, A.P. J. Abdul Kalam, at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Tuesday. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan

NEW DELHI, JUNE 1. Justice Ramesh Chandra Lahoti, the senior-most Supreme Court judge, was today sworn in the 35th Chief Justice of India, succeeding Justice S. Rajendra Babu, who retired after a brief tenure of 31 days.

The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, administered the oath of office to Mr. Justice Lahoti at a brief ceremony in the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapathi Bhavan. Mr. Justice Lahoti will have 17-month tenure till November 1, 2005. Soon after the swearing-in, he touched the feet of his mother seeking her blessings. "I owe everything to my parents. God blesses people through their parents," he later said.

The Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, the outgoing CJI, Mr. Babu, former CJIs, including V.N. Khare and A.S. Anand, the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, the Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh, the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, the Law Minister, H.R. Bhardwaj, the Parliamentary and Urban Affairs Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, the Social Justice Minister, Meira Kumar, the Minister of State for Law, K. Venkatapathy, former and present Supreme Court and High Court judges and eminent lawyers attended the function. The Opposition party leaders were conspicuous by their absence.

Enrolled in 1961, Mr. Justice Lahoti was elevated as a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in May 1988 and in February 1994 he was transferred to the Delhi high Court. He was appointed judge of the Supreme Court on December 9, 1998.

As a Supreme Court judge, Mr. Justice Lahoti has rendered several landmark judgments. In one such judgment, he observed that "senior officers occupying key positions are not supposed to mortgage their own discretion, volition and decision-making authority and be prepared to give way at the behest of politicians for carrying out commands having no sanctity in law."

In the Kesoram Industries case, Mr. Justice Lahoti interpreted several legislative Entries in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution leaning in favour of the States' power to levy tax and fee unless it was specifically taken away. While dealing with the issue of prompt and speedy justice, he once observed: "The obligation of the presiding judge to hold the proceedings so as to achieve the dual objective — search for truth and delivering justice expeditiously — cannot be subdued."

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