Justice Surya Kant is set to become the next Chief Justice of India after CJI Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai sent a letter to the Union Law Ministry naming him as his successor. The development comes days after the central government initiated the process to appoint Gavai’s successor.
According to the memorandum of procedure, the senior most judge of the Supreme Court is considered fit to hold the office. Currently, Justice Kant is the senior most judge in the apex court.
Justice Kant will assume the office after Gavai retires on November 23. He will be the 53rd CJI of the country and will remain in office for 15 months till February 9, 2027.
Who is Justice Surya Kant?
Born on February 10, 1962, in Haryana’s Hissar, Justice Kant became a judge of the apex court on May 24, 2019. He has been a part of benches that have given several historic judgments on abrogation of Article 370, free speech, democracy, corruption, environment and gender equality.
Justice Surya Kant was part of the historic bench that kept the colonial-era sedition law in abeyance, directing that no new FIRs be registered under it until a government review.
He nudged the Election Commission to disclose details of 65 lakh excluded voters in Bihar, showing his commitment to electoral transparency.
He also made history by directing that one-third of seats in bar associations, including the Supreme Court Bar Association, be reserved for women.
Justice Surya Kant was part of the bench that appointed a five-member committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Indu Malhotra to probe the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2022 Punjab visit, saying such matters required “a judicially trained mind.”
He upheld the One Rank-One Pension (OROP) scheme for defence forces, calling it constitutionally valid, and continues to hear petitions of women officers in the armed forces seeking parity in permanent commission.
He was on the seven-judge bench that overruled the 1967 Aligarh Muslim University judgment, opening the way for reconsideration of the institution’s minority status.
He was part of the bench that heard the Pegasus spyware case, which appointed a panel of cyber experts to probe allegations of unlawful surveillance, famously stating that the state cannot get a “free pass under the guise of national security.”
