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Related Article |
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 Justice Altmas Kabir is new Chief Justice of
India
Justice Kabir, 64, took the oath in
the name of God at a brief ceremony in the Ashoka Hall of the
Rashtrapati Bhavan.
He was administered the oath of the office by President Pranab
Mukherjee at a ceremony
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New Delhi: The 39th
Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir, who was Saturday sworn in by
President Pranab Mukharjee, is a man of substance who goes about
his work in a quiet but firm way.
Chief Justice Kabir is the second Supreme Court head who was born
after India attained independence, the first being his
predecessor, Chief Justice (retd) S.H. Kapadia.
Chief Justice Kabir was born July 19, 1948 in the illustrious
political family of West Bengal. His uncle Humanyun Kabir - a
close associate of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad - was an educationist,
politician, writer and philosopher. Humanyun Kabir was the
education minister in the cabinet of first prime minister
Jawaharlal Nehru and his successor Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Chief Justice Kabir's father Jahangir Kabir was a well-known
figure in West Bengal politics and served as a minister in the
governments headed by chief ministers B.C. Roy and P.C. Sen.
His initiation into serving the disadvantaged sections of society
was through his trade unionist father.
It was, perhaps, this grooming that in one of the cases he held
that "Calling a Scheduled Caste person as 'chamar' in a public
place or within house when some outsider is present amounts to an
offence punishable under the provision of the Scheduled Castes and
Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989".
A strong believer in maintaining and upholding the propriety of
the constitutional offices, the chief justice in another of his
judicial pronouncements said that the governors were not the
employees or were not obligated to carry out the instructions of
the central government as their role was defined under the
constitution.
Chief Justice Kabir, while hearing a matter relating to the
rehabilitation of the sex trade workers who want to quit the
profession voluntarily, told the government that it made excellent
schemes on paper but the targeted people did not know about them.
In another case related to ban on dancing by girls in Mumbai bars,
Chief Justice Kabir chided the Maharashtra government and
wondered: "If women can be models why can't they be bar dancers?
Are there moral assumptions in the state's constitutional
choices?"
His humble and polite mannerism is in contrast to his firm
judicial approach. He questioned the government's approach when he
said that any further enhancement in the reservation for the
Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/other backward classes could
only be undertaken after there was a quantification of data in
this regard. As it later turned out, the government did not have
such data to support its case.
Chief Justice Kabir's was also involved in a decision that
restored the membership of four Karnataka assembly legislators,
who were disqualified in wake of number game to save then chief
minister B.S. Yeddyurappa's government.
Before joining the Calcutta University, Chief Justice Kabir did
his schooling at Mt. Hermon School, Darjeeling, and later at
Calcutta Boys' School.
After doing his M.A. and L.L.B. from the Calcutta University,
Chief Justice Kabir enrolled as an advocate in 1973 and practised
in the district court and the Calcutta High Court in civil and
criminal side. He was no stranger to the legal system as his
grandfather was a district magistrate.
Chief Justice Kabir was a major force behind the computerisation
of the Calcutta High Court and other subordinate courts in Kolkata.
He was appointed as a permanent judge of the high court Aug 6,
1990. Thereafter Jan 3, 2005, he was sent to the Jharkhand High
Court as acting chief justice. He was made permanent March 1,
2005,
Chief Justice Kabir was elevated as the judge of the apex court
Sep 9, 2005.
He was instrumental in the design of the additional apex court
complex that would be coming up at Pragati Maidan on a plot that
once housed the Appu Ghar amusement park.
The building reflects amalgamation of all religions. Chief Justice
Kabir said: "I wanted to show that the Supreme Court is a place
where all religion have equal respect."
Some of the cases before Chief Justice Kabir include the appeal by
the Italian government asserting sovereign immunity enjoyed by its
two marines who are accused of shooting down two Indian fishermen
off Kerala coast Feb 15.
(Parmod Kumar can be contacted at saneel2010@gmail.com)
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