CJI Thakur appoints Justice Khehar as his successor, to take office on January 4, 2017

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur has recommended the name of Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar as his successor. Justice Khehar will take office on January 4, 2017 and his tenure will end eight months later, on August 28, 2017. A formal notification regarding his appointment will be issued after the President gives his assent.

Justice Khehar, 64, was appointed as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1999 and then elevated to the post of Chief Justice of the High Court of Uttarakhand in 2009. After serving as Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka, Khehar rose to become a judge in the Supreme Court in 2011.

Justice Khehar headed the five-judge bench that struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act brought by the government as unconstitutional in October 2015, ruling in favour of the collegium system of appointment of judges. He was also the head of the SC bench that ruled against the actions of Arunachal Pradesh Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, which had led to the imposition of President’s rule in the state.

Justice (retd) Amarjeet Chaudhary, before whom Justice Khehar had appeared as a lawyer while he was at the Bar, described him as a “competent” and “self-made man”. Senior advocate Anupam Gupta, who has argued before him on several occasions said that “his views have always been consistent, but not orthodox”.