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India gets new chief justice

Xinhua, January 4, 2017 Adjust font size:

India Wednesday got a new Chief Justice -- Jagdish Singh Khehar -- the first from the country's Sikh community to hold the top judicial office.

Khehar was administered the oath of office as the 44th Chief Justice of India by President Pranab Mukherjee at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan (president's residence) in the national capital.

Khehar, the son of a Kenyan immigrant, succeeded Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, who retired Tuesday, and he will have a tenure of a little over seven months.

The 64-year-old former lawyer shot to fame by authoring the judgment of a five-judge constitution bench that held "unconstitutional" the setting up of the National Judicial Appointment Commission.

The Chief Justice is the head of the judiciary of India. As head of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice allocates cases and appoints constitutional benches that deals with important legal matters. Endit