He will succeed Justice G N Ray. A notification to this effect was issued by the Union government on Wednesday.
The appointment of Justice Katju, who retired from the apex court on September 19 this year, was cleared by a committee headed by Vice President Hamid Ansari and included Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
Justice Katju, 65, delivered many landmark judgments that included favouring passive euthanasia, death penalty for honour killings, capital punishment for policemen involved in fake encounters and wanted the corrupt to be “hanged from the lamp post”.
Justice Katju served as a judge of the Allahabad High Court and also its acting Chief Justice in August 2004. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Madras High Court in November 2004. He became Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court in October 2005 and was elevated to the Supreme Court in April 2006.
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