Governor MOH Farook administers oath of office to Bhagwati Prasad in Ranchi on Sunday. (Hardeep Singh)

Ranchi, Aug. 22: Justice Bhagwati Prasad was sworn in as the Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court at a simple ceremony today. Jharkhand Governor M.O.H. Farook administered the oath of office to Justice Prasad at Birsa Mandap in Raj Bhavan.

A large number of advocates of the high court and the civil courts, Union food processing minister Subodh Kant Sahay, former Speaker C.P. Singh, advisers to the governor V.S. Dubey, R.R. Prasad and Wilfred Lakra along with senior bureaucrats and police officers were present on the occasion.

On August 18, the President of India had appointed Justice Prasad as the chief justice of Jharkhand High Court with a condition that the appointment would be effective from the date he assumed charge.

Justice Bhagwati Prasad took over as the seventh chief justice of Jharkhand High Court.

The post of the chief justice of the Jharkhand High Court had fallen vacant after Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra was elevated to the Supreme Court on April 29. Justice M.Y. Eqbal officiated as acting chief justice till June 10 and thereafter Justice Sushil Harkauli took over the charge.

Originally from Rajasthan, Justice Prasad, born on May 13, 1949, holds a master’s degree in law from University of Jodhpur. He enrolled in Rajasthan Bar Council as an advocate in 1972. He also used to teach law students at Jodhpur University and wrote a thesis on “Fundamentalism, law and national integration: a study with special reference to India”.

He was elevated to the post of a judge of Rajasthan High Court on April 6, 1996, and later transferred to Gujarat High Court in February 2008. He said to have made several attempts to solve the problems of the subordinate judges and improve the performance of the subordinate courts of Rajasthan to check corruption.