Justice Surya Kant takes oath as 53rd Chief Justice of India

New Delhi: Justice Surya Kant took oath as the 53rd Chief Justice of India on Monday. He is going to serve in that post for 14 months. The oath was administered by President Droupadi Murmu, and Justice Kant succeeds former CJI BR Gavai.

Justice Gavai, who demitted office on Sunday, after turning 65, recommended Justice Surya Kant's name for the post of CJI. He is the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court; the recommendation upheld the precedent set down in the Constitution.

President Murmu appointed Justice Surya Kant as the next CJI on the recommendation of former CJI Gavai. The appointment was done "in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution" on the President.

Justice Surya Kant was born on February 10, 1962, in Haryana's Hisar. He hails from a middle class family and did his graduation from a college in Hisar. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Law in 1984, and in the same year, he started practicing law at the District Court in Hisar.

In 1985, he started practicing in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and he is specialised in Constitutional, Service, and Civil matters. On July 7, 2000, he became Haryana's youngest Advocate General. In 2004, he was made a permanent judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In October 2018, he assumed charge of the office of the Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh. He became a judge of the Supreme Court of India on May 24, 2019.

Justice Surya Kant is known for his judicial temperament and deep sense of fairness. He is famous in the legal fraternity of India for his judicial integrity and astuteness. He has given landmark verdicts on abrogation of Article 370, free speech, corruption, environment, and gender equality, and was part of the bench that kept the colonial-era sedition law in abeyance. He is a member of the Governing Body of the National Legal Services Authority.