Srinagar: Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh Wednesday took oath as 36th Chief Justice (CJ) of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha administered the oath of office to the Chief Justice at a ceremony held in Jammu.
The oath ceremony comes three days after the President of India appointed Justice Singh as the Chief Justice of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh.
Registrar General of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh, Shahzad Azeem read out the warrant of appointment.
Justice Tashi Rabstan, Justice Sanjeev Kumar, Justice Sindhu Sharma, Justice Rajnesh Oswal, Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul, Justice Sanjay Dhar, Justice Puneet Gupta, Justice Javed Iqbal Wani, Justice Mohan Lal, Justice Mohammad Akram Chowdhary, Justice Rahul Bharti, Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi, Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal, and Justice Rajesh Sekhri also attended the ceremony.
Besides the sitting High Court judges, Advocate General D C Raina, DSGI Jammu Vishal Sharma, DSGI Kashmir Tahir Shamsi, former judges of the High Court, senior designated advocates, government advocates, President HCBA M K Bhardwaj along with other office bearers and advocates, Principal District and Sessions Judge Jammu Sanjay Parihar, Principal Secretary to Chief Justice M K Sharma, other registry officers as well as senior judicial officers also attended the ceremony.
Chief Justice Vijayalakshmi Brara and his family also attended the oath ceremony.
The ceremony was live streamed on YouTube and was attended physically by the dignitaries and the senior officers and officials of J&K administration including the Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Director General of Police, Law Secretary and other officers.
The newly sworn-in Chief Justice was given a ceremonial guard of honour on his arrival at the High Court.
He was warmly received and welcomed by sitting judges of the High Court, Registrar General, Registrar Vigilance and other officers.
Subsequently, the Chief Justice interacted with the officers of the Registry and other staff members.
Justice Singh was posted in Gauhati High Court and was recommended to be the Chief Justice of J&K and Ladakh High Court by a six-member Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on December 13 last year.
Born on March 1, 1963, at Imphal, Manipur, to late Justice N Ibotombi Singh of the Gauhati High Court, who had also served as the first Advocate General of Manipur and N Gomati Devi, Justice N Kotiswar Singh completed schooling from Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Purulia, West Bengal and pre-university course in science from St Anthony’s College, Shillong.
Justice Singh graduated from Kirori Mal College, Delhi University with BA (Honours) in Political Science in 1983 and obtained his LLB from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University in 1986.
Justice Singh was enrolled as an Advocate in 1986.
He attended the six months’ ‘Commonwealth Young Lawyers’ Course’ under the University of London in 1992.
After a brief practice in the Supreme Court of India, Justice Singh shifted practice under the Gauhati High Court, the then common High Court of Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.
He also practiced in the Central Administrative Tribunal, Guwahati and the Subordinate Courts in Manipur.
Justice Singh served as the Advocate General of the State of Manipur from November 3, 2007, till elevation to the bench.
Justice Singh was sworn in as an Additional Judge of the Gauhati High Court on October 17, 2011, and as a Judge of the Gauhati High Court on November 7, 2012.
He was appointed as a Judge of the Manipur High Court upon its creation on March 23, 2013, and was appointed to perform the duties of the office of Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court on September 21, 2020, to January 9, 2021, from May 9, 2022, to June 22, 2022, and January 10 this year to till February 12.