ST SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, Chief Justice of India is likely to be consensus candidate of the united opposition, led by Congress, for the coveted post of Vice President of India. Justice Thakur is relinquishing his office on superannuation on January 4, 2017. The post of the Vice President of India is falling vacant on August 11, 2017, on completion of the second term by Mohammed Hamid Ansari, who was re-elected on August 7, 2012.
Coming from a distinguished family with legal background, Justice T S Thakur, if elected, will be the first occupant from Jammu and Kashmir to hold the second top slot of the country after President of India.
Sources privy to Congress high command told STATE TIMES that the candidature of Justice Thakur, an upright judge, has been discussed informally by various political parties. The initiative coming from the Congress has been received well by the regional parties, national opposition and the Left, particularly after the BJP showed discomfort on the public debate generated by frank and honest speaking of Justice Thakur over appointment of judges and vacancies in various tribunals across the country.
Appointed as Chief Justice of India on November 18, 2015 with effective date of December 3, 2015, Justice Thakur came into huge limelight in April this year when he pleaded for more resources for the legal system from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He broke-down in the presence of the Prime Minister on April 25, 2016 while addressing National Judicial Conference. An emotional CJI went on to launch an unprecedented attack on the present and earlier government for often blaming the judiciary for mounting backlog cases, which touched alarming 3.14 crore but at the same time doing nothing to improve the number of judges and increasing the number of courts despite pleas from the judiciary. On November 27, 2016, Justice Thakur used strong words against the Centre for allegedly sitting on the appointment of judges, saying around 200 posts were lying vacant in High Courts thus drawing sharp rebuttals from the Union Law Minister and the Attorney General.
Justice T. S Thakur is seen as a strong and straightforward judge, who could fit well in the slot being vacated by Hamid Ansari.
Caught in the demonetization row, sources told STATE TIMES that making Justice Thakur as the consensus candidate will gain momentum only after his retirement barely after 34 days.
Son of legendary legal luminary and Judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Devi Dass Thakur, who served Jammu and Kashmir as Deputy Chief Minister as also Governor of Assam, Justice T S Thakur was enrolled as a Pleader in October 1972 and joined the chamber of his father, then a leading advocate. He practised in civil, criminal, constitutional, taxation and service matters in the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir. He was designated as a Senior Advocate in 1990. He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the High Court of J & K on 16 February 1994 and transferred as judge of the High Court of Karnataka in March 1994. He was appointed as a permanent judge in September 1995. He was transferred as a judge of the High Court of Delhi in July 2004. He was appointed as Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court on 9 April 2008 and took over as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana on 11 August 2008. He was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court and assumed charge on 17 November 2009.
The younger brother of the Chief Justice of India, Justice Dheeraj Thakur is currently a judge in Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
