Justice Surya Kant to take oath on Monday as next CJI

Justice Surya Kant — a jurist whose pen has shaped some of the most consequential chapters of India’s recent constitutional journey — will on Monday ascend to the nation’s highest judicial office as the 53rd Chief Justice of India.

He succeeds justice B.R. Gavai, who demits office this evening, and will preside over the Supreme Court for nearly 15 months, until 9 February 2027.

Born on 10 February 1962, in Haryana’s Hisar district to a modest middle-class family, Justice Kant’s rise from a small-town lawyer to the steward of the Indian judiciary reads like a quiet saga of grit and scholarship. Decades after topping his Master’s in Law at Kurukshetra University, he now takes charge of a court whose architecture he has helped shape through some of its most pivotal rulings.

Before his elevation to the Supreme Court, Justice Kant left an imprint on the Punjab and Haryana High Court and later helmed the Himachal Pradesh High Court as chief justice. In the apex court, his tenure has been marked by verdicts that reverberate through the nation’s constitutional and civic life — from the historic judgment on the abrogation of Article 370 to rulings on free speech, citizenship, gender justice, and electoral transparency.

He was part of the bench that pressed pause on the colonial-era sedition law, insisting that no new FIRs be filed while the statute awaits a governmental rethink. In another matter, he compelled the Election Commission to reveal details of 65 lakh voters excluded from Bihar’s draft rolls, reinforcing the principle that democracy must begin with a complete and honest voter list.

Justice Kant’s courtroom has also been a crucible for gender equity. He reinstated a woman sarpanch wrongfully removed from office and led the push for reserving one-third of seats in bar associations — including the apex court’s own — for women.

His judicial footprint extends deep into matters of national security and state accountability. He helped appoint a high-level panel to investigate the 2022 security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Punjab visit, asserting that such questions require “a judicially trained mind.” He upheld the One Rank One Pension scheme as constitutionally sound and continues to hear cases on gender parity in the armed forces.

From joining the seven-judge bench that overruled the 1967 AMU judgment — paving the way for revisiting the university’s minority status — to helping steer the Pegasus spyware hearings and warning that the state cannot claim “a free pass under the guise of national security,” Justice Kant’s jurisprudence has consistently demanded transparency and constitutional fidelity.

As he prepares to take the oath as CJI, justice Surya Kant steps into a role he has long seemed destined for — stewarding the Supreme Court at a moment when India’s legal and constitutional questions are more urgent, complex and defining than ever.

With PTI inputs