BHOPAL: Justice Suresh Kumar Kait took oath as the new Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on Wednesday. With this, he became the 28th Chief Justice of MP High Court since it was established in 1956.
Madhya Pradesh Governor Mangubhai Patel administered the oath to him at Raj Bhawan in Bhopal in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and several other dignitaries from the administration and judiciary.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh and former state Home and Law Minister Narottam Mishra also attended the CJ's swearing-in ceremony.
Beside them, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary, senior officials from the Law Department, senior judges of MP High Court and district courts, as well as some prominent lawyers also graced the occasion.
Born on May 24, 1963, in a Dalit family in Kaithal district of Haryana, Justice Kait was serving as a senior judge in Delhi High Court since 2008.
After completing his school education from his home district Kaithal, Kait graduated in Political Science from Kurukshetra University and after that, he studied Law at Delhi University.
He started practising as a lawyer in 1989 in Delhi and became a judge in 2004. In 2008, he was appointed as Additional Judge in Delhi High Court, where he became a permanent judge in 2013.
During his years-long service, Justice Kait has heard several important cases, including riots in Jamia Nagar and protests against Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) in Delhi.
Notably, Madhya Pradesh High Court had been without a Chief Justice since Justice Ravi Malimath retired this year on May 25.
After his retirement, Justice Sheel Nagu was appointed as Acting Chief Justice. One month later, Justice Sheel Nagu was appointed as the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Subsequently, the Central government notified the appointment of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva as the Acting Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Renowned lawyer Vivek Tankha, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP (Congress) from Madhya Pradesh, said that it is the first time MP HC got a Dalit Chief Justice with Suresh Kumar Kait.