New Delhi: Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, the first Sikh Chief Justice of India (CJI) retired on Sunday after a brief tenure of about seven months. Two other Sikhs, who were apex court judges, are Kuldip Singh and HS Bedi but they did not become CJI.
Justice Khehar's successor Justice Dipak Misra will be sworn-in as the 45th CJI on Monday.
Justice Khehar became a judge of the apex court on September 13, 2011. He endeared himself with the members of the bar and brother judges by his impeccable honesty, integrity, simplicity, frank and forthright views and comments. He treated seniors and juniors alike and often encouraged junior lawyers to argue their case whenever, seniors are not available.
In his farewell address on Friday, Khehar thanked his family, India and Kenya, where he completed his primary education. He said “I would thank my land of birth for all it gave me. My primary education was in Kenya, which laid the foundation of my character.”
He also thanked his parents, teachers and his seniors in the profession for their contribution in his life. Recalling his late father for teaching him “perseverance and resolve,” Justice Khehar said, “When I drew my first salary as a high court judge, my father’s pension was higher.”
He said that he feels “devoted” to his 95-year-old mother. “She loves me so much and is always worried about me,” he added.
Khehar’s great-grandfather Wazir Chand was a part of the DAV institutions in Lahore and moved to Kenya to avoid arrest since the British believed that he was motivating people towards the freedom struggle.
His father held a job in the postal service in the country. The family moved back to India after independence, when his father decided to take Indian citizenship. Khehar was still a school student then.
As a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Khehar has rendered several landmark judgments. He was part of the bench that sent Sahara chief Subrata Roy to Tihar jail for flouting the orders to refund money his company had collected from investors for two financial schemes declared illegal by SEBI.
Justice Khehar struck down as unconstitutional the National Judicial Appointments Commission law and asked the Centre to come out with a fresh Memorandum of Procedure for judicial appointments.
The MoP is yet to be finalized with both the judiciary and executive refusing to come to terms. It would be a challenging task for Justice Dipak Misra, who will now, heads the collegium of Judges to sort out the differences with the Centre to finalise the MoP as well as in filling judicial vacancies for High Court and the apex court.
In the triple talaq case, Justice Khehar held the practice of ‘talaq-e-biddat’ being a constituent of ‘personal law’ has a stature equal to other fundamental rights. The practice which is in existence and accepted by all for over 1,400 years cannot therefore be set aside, on the ground of being violative of the concept of the constitutional morality, through judicial intervention.
In the right to privacy issue, Justice Khehar agreed with Justice D.Y. Chandrachud’s main judgment which said “Right to privacy has been held to be a fundamental right of the citizen being an integral part of Article 21 of the Constitution. Life is precious in itself. But life is worth living because of the freedoms, which enable each individual to live life as it should be lived. The best decisions on how life should be lived are entrusted to the individual. They are continuously shaped by the social milieu in which individuals exist.”
