New Delhi: Justice Visheshwar Nath Khare the senior-most Judge of the Supreme Court, will be sworn in as the Chief Justice of India by President A P J Abdul Kalam on December 19.

Justice Khare, who will succeed Justice G B Pattanaik as the 33rd Chief Justice of India, will have tenure of nearly one and half years and is due to retire on May 2, 2004.

Born on May 2, 1939, Justice Khare enrolled as an advocate at the Allahabad High Court on November 28, 1961 and practiced mainly on the Civil, Writ and Revenue side. He was also appointed as the Chief Standing Counsel for the Uttar Pradesh government in the High Court.

After becoming a permanent Judge of the Allahabad High Court from June 25, 1983, he was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court on February 2, 1996. He was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court on March 21, 1997.

Recently, on behalf of the five-member Constitution Bench, Justice Khare had written the opinion on the Presidential Reference on the Gujarat issue holding that finalisation of the dates of election fell "exclusively" within the domain of the Election Commission and even Parliament could not interfere in that.

He was also part of the 11-judge Constitution Bench, which gave a ruling on the administration and management of Minority Educational Institutions.

PTI