Monday, January 15, 2007
New CJIMr Justice K G
Balakrishnan takes oath
New Delhi, January 14
In a momentous occasion
in the history of independent India, Mr Justice K G Balakrishnan today
became the first Dalit to occupy the highest constitutional post in the
judiciary as he was sworn in as the new Chief Justice of India by President
A P J Abdul Kalam.
Dr Kalam administered the
oath of office and secrecy to Mr Justice Balakrishnan as the 37th CJI at
an impressive ceremony in the Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Justice Balakrishnan (61)
succeeded Mr Justice Y K Sabharwal and will have relatively a longer tenure
of three years and four months till May 12, 2010 unlike his four predecessors,
which gives enough time to tide over various problems faced by judiciary.
The swearing-in ceremony
was attended by Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Lok Sabha Speaker
Somnath Chatterjee, Justice Sabharwal, several Union Ministers, Supreme
Court and Delhi High Court judges, some of the former CJIs, Congress President
Sonia Gandhi and law officers of the Government, senior advocates and members
of Supreme Court Bar Association.
The ceremony was attended
by several of Mr Justice Balakrishnan’s relatives, including his mother
K M Sarada, for whom it was a real proud moment to see a long but successful
journey of her son from remote Thalayolaparambu village of Kottayam district
in Kerala to the highest seat of judiciary.
She was brought to the Durbar
Hall in wheelchair to witness her son taking the oath as head of the Indian
judiciary in a glittering function.
Born on May 12, 1945 to poor
Dalit court clerk, he got his law degree in 1968 and enrolled himself as
lawyer in Ernakulam and started his practice both in civil and criminal
cases at the same time he continued with further study in law and got his
LLM degree with distinction in 1970 .
He was selected to the Kerala
Judicial Service in 1973 and appointed as a Munisif but resigned from the
post of Additional Sessions judge some years later to start his practice
in Kerala High Court. He was appointed a judge of the High Court 1985 and
later served as Chief Justice of Chief Justice of Gujarat and Madras High
Courts between July 1998 and June 2000, before his elevation to the Apex
Court.
Soft spoken Mr Justice Balakrishnan
has said that he never thought of reaching thus far considering the fact
that he had come up from the poorest section of the society and as a school
going child even the post of a judicial officer in local court used to
fascinated him whenever he had an opportunity to visit it with his father.
He attributed his reaching to the top position in judiciary as the success
of Indian democracy, which provides equal opportunity to all despite its
various flaws.
Mr Justice Balakrishnan has
listed the easing the burden of nearly three core pending cases with the
high courts and lower judiciary, firming up the criminal justice delivery
system and implement the Alternate Dispute Redressal mechanism among his
top administrative priorities.
Always treading clear of
any controversy, he was of the opinion that the verdict given by the Supreme
Court in cases with political overtones, should not be seen as a confrontation
either with the executive or the legislature if they go against them as
it was a duty cast upon the apex court to define the Constitution, which
was supreme and has clearly earmarked the spheres of all the three wings
of Government.
Justice Sabharwal, who demitted
the office of CJI today, described Mr Justice Balakrishnan an intelligent
and vastly experience judge and an able administrator, who would carry
forward the reforms initiated to improve the criminal justice system during
the past two years by the apex court.
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