Newly appointed Chief Justice of India Rajendra Mal Lodha at outgoing Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam's farewell at Supreme court in New Delhi on Friday
Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha was on Sunday sworn in as the 41st Chief Justice of India. He was administered the oath of office by President Pranab Mukharjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
"Judiciary was not visible, now it is," he said after being sworn in.
At 64, Justice Lodha is the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court after Justice Sathasivam. He will have a brief tenure of five months as the Chief Justice as he is scheduled to retire on September 27.
On Friday, Justice Lodha said the top court represented no caste - minority or majority - and thst his task was to maintain the balance.
He has handled sensitive cases in the Supreme Court and is presently heading the bench monitoring the probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the coal scam.
Justice Lodha's judgement on regulating sale of acid to prevent attacks is an important one - he had banned over-the-counter sale of acid and awarded compensation to victims of acid attacks.
He had also recently allowed army personnel to vote in their places of posting. He headed the panel which examined sexual harassment allegations by an intern against former Supreme Court judge, Justice AK Ganguly, and had termed his behaviour as "unwelcome".
He also dismissed General VK Singh's plea to change his date of birth in a case which saw the country's first serving Army Chief dragging the government to court over his age.