Justice Madan Lokur Attends Pakistan CJ's Swearing-In, Shares Bench With Him

The swearing-in ceremony of Pakistan's new Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Asif Saeed Khosa saw the attendance of several luminaries from across the world, including Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and former Supreme Court judge, Justice Madan B Lokur.

According to Indian Express, Justice Lokur also shared a bench with the new Chief Justice and heard three cases for about 45 minutes on Friday. The first matter was a challenge of a conviction; the second a bail hearing; and the third a civil matter, which resulted in a compromise between the two parties.

Justice Lokur and Justice Khosa have been close friends since 2004. He now described the reception in Pakistan as "unprecedented" and appreciated the gesture of inviting him to preside with the CJI for the cases. He also acknowledged the "wonderful" atmosphere in the court there, stating that it wasn't as crowded as in India.

The ceremony

During the ceremony, President Arif Alvi administered oath to Justice Khosa, who said, "I will do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favour."

Also invited to the swearing-in ceremony at the Aiwan-i-Sadr in Islamabad were the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Narin Ferdi Sefik; Chief Judge of the State of Borno in Nigeria, Kashim Zannah; Justice Lokur's wife Savita Lokur; and former Canada judge and founding president of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute; Sandra E Oxner and her husband, reported the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

Justice Khosa received his undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Punjab and his LLM degree from Queens College at Cambridge in 1978. He enrolled as an Advocate at the Lahore High Court in 1979, and then at the Supreme Court in 1985. He was elevated as a Supreme Court judge in February, 2010.

Over the course of his nearly two decade long career, Justice Khosa has decided about 55,000 cases. He will remain Pakistan's top judge for 11 months and is scheduled to retire on December 21, 2019.

Picture Courtesy: Indian Express