Justice Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu was on Sunday sworn in as the 42nd Chief Justice of India by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Sixty-three-year-old Justice Dattu took oath at a brief ceremony held at the Durbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. 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.
“I will sit as a common man on the Bench,” was how the new CJI H.L. Dattu described his job as the head of the judiciary.
Justice Dattu said the job of the apex court judge is very responsible as every case at the top court is a “serious case” for citizens. “At the end of the day it is the last 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,” he said.
Justice R.M. Lodha, who retired on Saturday as the CJI, senior judges of the Supreme Court, the high court, retired judges and members of the Bar were also present for the ceremony. Justice Dattu, who is handling the case relating to a plea for keeping the 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,” he further said.
Justice Dattu, 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 Bengaluru and dealt with all types of matters civil, criminal, tax and constitutional cases.