Justice Khehar, the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court following Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, is likely to take control on January 4, 2017. Justice Khehar will possess a small tenure of around 8 months.
Official sources stated Justice Thakur had stuck to convention and suggested Justice Khehar’s name to Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
By convention, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court is appointed the Chief Justice. However, while in the Emergency, two judges were superseded when the Chief Justice’s post fell vacant.
One of the superseded judges had dissented with a greater part judgment that held that people could not claim fundamental rights in the course of the Emergency.
With the NDA govt often getting itself at the receiving end of court verdicts, a belief had gained ground that it might not exactly adhere to the convention this time around.
But with Justice Khehar’s succession getting officially suggested by the outgoing Chief Justice, such a probability has become remote.
