Justice Kumar takes oath as J-K HC chief justice

Governor N N Vohra administered the oath of office to Justice Kumar, who was the acting Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, at a ceremony held at SKICC here.

The warrant of appointment of Justice Kumar as the Chief Justice of JK High Court, signed by the President last month, was read out by the Registrar General of the state High Court.

Justice Kumar replaced Justice Virender, who took over as acting Chief Justice of the High Court on April 2 after former Chief Justice F M Kalifullah was elevated to the Supreme Court.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Speaker Legislative Assembly Mohammad Akbar Lone, ministers, judges of the High Court, state Chief Information Commissioner, Director General of Police, advocates and family members of Justice Kumar were present at the ceremony.

Justice Kumar was born on January 5, 1953 and did his BA, LLB from Punjab University Patiala followed by LLM from Birmingham.

He was enrolled as an Advocate on December 22, 1977. He practised in Sangrur and also the High Court in Constitutional, Service, Labour, Civil, Cooperative and Banking cases.

He worked as Additional Advocate General, Punjab from October 1995 to November 1996.

Kumar was appointed as an additional judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 2, 2001 and a Permanent Judge on November 9, 2001.