Cuttack, March 25: Justice V. Gopala Gowda was Thursday sworn in as the new chief justice of the Orissa High Court by Governor Muralidhar Chandrakant Bhandare.

Justice Gowda (59) succeeds Chief Justice Bilal Nazki who retired on November 17, 2009. Acting Chief Justice I.M. Qudussi was transferred as judge of Chhattisgarh High Court.

Present at the oath taking ceremony on the high court premises today were chief minister Naveen Patnaik, law minister Bikram Kesari Arukh, finance minister Prafulla Ghadei, other judges of the high court, chief secretary Tarun Kanti Mishra, director-general of police Manmohan Praharaj and eminent persons from various fields.

Justice Gowda, who was until now a judge of the Karnataka High Court, was born on October 6, 1951. He enrolled as an advocate in 1975. He was posted as additional judge of the high court on June 11, 1997. His services were confirmed on June 3, 1999.

He was elevated to the rank of chief justice and posted in Orissa on March 23.

The court of the new chief justice on his first day was constituted with Justice B.P. Das. A total of 104 cases were listed for hearing, five of them for admission and four for orders, official sources said.