Justice Tirath Singh Thakur becomes 43rd Chief Justice of India

New Delhi: Justice Tirath Singh Thakur was sworn in as the 43^rd Chief Justice of India on Thursday. He took over from Justice HL Dattu, who retired on Wednesday. Justice Thakur is slated to be the in power for 13 months.

President Pranab Mukherjee administered the oath taking ceremony of Thakur at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in the morning in the presence of luminaries including Former Chief Justices H L Dattu, K G Balakrishnan, SH Kapadia, Rajendra Mal Lodha.

Thakur before becoming the Chief Justice of India had various feathers in his cap.

Thakur, known for his pragmatic approach cleansed the Indian cricket after it got entangled with countless scams including the infamous IPL spot-fixing case.

The foremost challenge for him would be to appoint judges.

It was Thakur and the dynamic approach of his bench that order the setting up of the Lodha Committee to probe into the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The bench suggested various moves that would make the BCCI accountable and transparent.

Justice Thakur is known for giving a patient hearing to every case listed before his bench.

Thakur was also responsible for ordering a CBI probe into the Saradha Ponzi fiasco in West Bengal. The CBI probe, besides catching the Mamata Banerjee-led government in back foot, unearthed the role of top ministers' in the multi-crore scam.

The oath taking ceremony was attended by cabinet ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, DV Sadananda Gowda, Harsh Vardhan, Smriti Irani, and senior BJP leader LK Advani. Also present were the leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress party leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, Delhi governor Najeeb Jung, and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

(With inputs from agencies)