After a long time, Andhra Pradesh got a full-time chief justice for its high court on Monday, when Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari was sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the state high court.
Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan administered the oath of office to the new chief justice at Tummalapalli Kalakshetram in Vijayawada.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Maheshwari’s family members, interim CJ Praveen Kumar, chief secretary L V Subrahmanyam and others present at the event.
However, while taking oath Justice Maheshwari is learnt to have fumbled.
Instead of saying that “he was taking oath as chief justice of Andhra Pradesh, he read out the oath as “Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh,” though the Governor had read the sentence correctly. The chief justice, however, corrected himself later.
The video of his goof-up during the swearing-in ceremony went rounds in the social media.
And needless to say, the accusing finger was pointed at the mistake committed by the AP government officials, who the critics said had given him a wrong paper.
However, it could be a slip of tongue by the CJ. Since he had worked in Madhya Pradesh for a long time, Maheshwari might have inadvertently spelt it out wrongly.
He worked in Madhya Pradesh for most of the time, starting from his practice in MP high court and in 2005, he was appointed as Additional Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
In 2008 he became a permanent judge in Madhya Pradesh high court before he was transferred to CJ of Andhra Pradesh. He will retire on June 28, 2023, as High Court CJ.
