Supreme Court to get three new Judges today

Justice Khehar may become first Sikh CJI in Jan 2017

The Supreme Court of India will get three new Judges on Tuesday,taking the effective strength of the judiciary to 29. However,since three Judges are set to retire in the next one month,the total number would again be back to 26 out of the sanctioned strength of 31.

Among those scheduled to take oath on Tuesday is Karnataka High Court Justice J S Khehar,who could achieve the distinction of becoming the first Sikh Chief Justice of India in January 2017.

The other Judges who will take oath tomorrow are Gujarat High Court Chief Justice S J Mukhopadhyay and Bombay High Court Judge Ranjana Desai.

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Justice Khehar belongs to the Punjab and Haryana High Court and will join Justice S S Nijjar,also of the same HC,on the Bench.

Meanwhile,the Supreme Court collegium is also learnt to have recommend the names of Kerala HC Chief Justice Jasti Chamleshwar and Delhi HC Chief Justice Dipak Misra for elevation to the SC.

The name of another Judge from the Delhi HC,Justice Vikramjit Sen,has already been recommended for appointment as Karnataka HC Chief Justice.

Among the new SC Judges,Justice Khehar was part of the Bench at Punjab and Haryana HC which in 2009 had decided the contentious issue of who could claim benefits provided to a Sikh under the Sikh Gurdwara Act,1925. Speaking for the Bench,Justice Khehar had held,Retaining hair unshorn is a fundamental tenet of the Sikh religion and a Sikh is one who keeps unshorn hair and does not trim beard or pluck eyebrows.

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The three-Judge Bench headed by Justice Khehar had held that not only that,under the Sikh rehat-maryada,a Sikh is not permitted to dishonour hair,or even to harbour any antipathy to hair of the head with which a child is born. Dyeing ones hair is considered as an act of dishonouring hair. Transgression of these norms is treated as tabooed practice,which is condonable only after suffering a chastisement prescribed.

As a lawyer,Khehar was the counsel for Lok Sabha MP M Krishnaswamy in defending SC Judge V Ramaswami in a corruption case before a committee of Jurists comprising Justice P B Sawant,Justice P D Desai and Justice (retd) O Chinnappa Reddy.

Recently,he was a member of the committee of jurists appointed by the Rajya Sabha Chairperson to investigate the grounds on which the removal of Khehars predecessor as Karnataka HC Chief Justice P D Dinakaran had been sought. However,Dinakaran resigned before the committee could complete the task.

Justice Ranjana Desai will be the fifth woman Judge of the apex court. After her elevation tomorrow,it would be the first time that the SC has two woman Judges at the same time,the other being Justice Gyan Sudha Misra.

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Justice Desai was part of the Bombay High Court Bench that upheld the death penalty to 26/11 terror attack convict Mohammad Ajmal Kasab.