Justice Dattu sworn-in as the new CJI

September 28, 2014

President Pranab Mukherjee has administered the oath of office on Justice Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu as the Chief Justice of India. 63-year-old Justice Dattu took oath at a brief ceremony held at the chandeliered Durbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Prominent figures like Vice President Hamid Ansari, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, M Venkaiah Naidu and BJP veteran L K Advani were among those present at the ceremony.
He succeeds CJI R M Lodha and will be at the helm of Indian judiciary till December 2, 2015.He will have tenure of little over one year before he retires on 2 December, 2015.
He enrolled as an advocate in 1975 and began his law practice in Bangalore where he dealt with all types of matters — civil, criminal, tax and Constitutional cases. He started appearing before the Karnataka High Court in myriad capacities like a government pleader for sales tax department, standing counsel for Income Tax department and later as government advocate 1983 onwards. Justice Dattu was elevated to the stature of judge of the Karnataka High Court in 1995 after he had been a standing counsel for I-T department.
Later, he was further raised to serve as the Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court in February 2007 and shortly afterwards shifted in the same capacity to the Kerala High Court. He began his innings as a judge in Supreme Court in December 2008. Justice Dattu has headed some very critical panels like the one monitoring investigations into 2G spectrum scam.

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