CJI Bobde congratulated by Bar leaders

The newly-appointed 47th Chief Justice of India (CJI), Sharad Arvind Bobde, created history on Monday by sitting on the dais with the Chief Justice of Jamaica, Bryan Sykes, and the seniormost judge of Bhutan's Supreme Court, Justice Kuenlay Tshering, on his first day as the head of the Indian judiciary in the courtroom.

Justice Bobde, 63, was administered the oath of office by President Ram Nath Kovind earlier in the day.

Bar leaders, led by Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president and senior advocate Rakesh Kumar Khanna, congratulated the CJI the moment he started the day's proceedings in the packed courtroom at around 11.30 am.

"On behalf of all the members of the SCBA and on my own behalf, I express our sincere pleasure in congratulating my lord, Justice Bobde, on his assuming charge of the office of the Chief Justice of India. We wish your lordship a highly successful and fruitful tenure," the SCBA president said.

The lawyers and mediapersons present in the court were curious and were seen discussing about the presence of Justice Sykes and Justice Tshering on the dais.

A number of visitors, including some relatives of Justice Bobde, were in the packed courtroom of the CJI, who conducted the judicial proceedings along with justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant.

The lawyers and the scribes had a tough time in managing to enter the courtroom.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal was the first lawyer to mention a case before the newly-sworn in CJI.

Sibal sought an urgent listing of the bail plea of his colleague in the Congress party and senior advocate P Chidambaram, who is in jail for almost three months now in the INX Media money-laundering case.

The CJI assured Sibal that he would be listing the former Union finance minister's bail plea in a day or two.

Justice Bobde, who will have a tenure of over 17 months as the CJI and is due to retire on April 23, 2021, has decided several key cases and was part of the recent historic verdict that cleared the way for the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.

Hailing from a family of lawyers in Maharashtra, Justice Bobde is the son of eminent senior advocate Arvind Shriniwas Bobde.

Born on April 24, 1956 in Maharashtra's Nagpur, he got his BA and LLB degrees from the Nagpur University. He was enrolled as an advocate at the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1978.

Justice Bobde practised law at the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court with appearances before the Principal Seat at Bombay and before the Supreme Court for over 21 years.

He was designated as a senior advocate in 1998.

Justice Bobde was elevated to the Bombay High Court on March 29, 2000 as an additional judge and sworn-in as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on October 16, 2012.

He was elevated as a Supreme Court judge on April 12, 2013.