Staff Reporter :Surendra Kumar Sinha was sworn in as the country’s 21st Chief Justice on Saturday. President Abdul Hamid administered the oath-taking ceremony in the Darbar Hall of the Bangabhaban at 11:05am.Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan conducted the oath-taking ceremony. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, outgoing Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain, some former Chief Justices, opposition leader Raushan Ershad and Attorney General Mahbube Alam were present, among others. Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha also known as SK Sinha succeeded Justice Md Muzammel Hossain, who retired on January 16.President appointed SK Sinha as the Chief Justice on January 12 in line with Section 95(1) of the Constitution. The Ministry of Law issued an ordinance in this connection.The ordinance said that the appointment would be effective from January 17. He will remain in office as the Chief Justice till January 31 in 2018. After the oath-taking ceremony, new Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha reconstituted the Appellate Division benche of the Supreme Court, said Supreme Court Registrar Kuddus Zaman.The Chief Justice will head one of the Appellate Division benches and Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah will head the other one.The other members of the bench headed by the Chief Justice are Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.Justice Md Imman Ali and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury are the members of the bench headed by Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah.SK Sinha, elder son of Lalit Mohan Sinha and Dhanbhati Sinha, was born on February 1 in 1951 at Ranirbazar village under Kamalganj Upazila in Moulvibazar district. He enrolled his name as an advocate in the Sylhet Bar in 1974. He became High Court (HC) and the Appellate Division lawyer in 1978 and 1990 respectively.He was appointed High Court Judge on October 24 in 1999 and the Appellate Division judge on July 16 in 2009. SK Sinha, who belongs to the minority Bishnupriya Manipuri community, is the first non-Muslim to hold the highest position of the Supreme Court. He was on the Appellate Bench that heard the 13th Amendment appeal and scrapped the provision for the caretaker government to oversee general elections.He was also part of the bench that heard the 2009 appeals in the Bangabandhu Murder Case and has been an appeal judge in the ongoing war crimes trials.
