New Delhi: Justice Surya Kant was sworn in as the 53rd Chief Justice of India on Monday. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Justice Kant in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, and Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, among other dignitaries.
This marks the beginning of Justice Kant’s nearly 15-month tenure in the country’s highest judicial office. He succeeds Justice Bhushan R Gavai and will remain in office till February 9, 2027 – till he turns 65.
After the oath-taking ceremony, Justice Surya Kant greeted his predecessor Justice Gavai and shared a hug with him.
Reducing the backlog of court cases will be the topmost priority or the new Chief Justice of India, he had said prior to taking oath.
“We would work on how to reduce the pending cases in the Supreme Court and courts across the country,” Justice Kant had said ahead of the ceremony, adding that he would speak with all High Courts across the country to identify and resolve issues that are preventing hearings in lower courts.
Born on February 10, 1962, in Haryana, Justice Kant began his legal journey in Hisar in 1984 before moving to Chandigarh to practise before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Over the years, he handled a broad spectrum of constitutional, service and civil matters, representing universities, boards, corporations, banks, and the High Court.
Justice Kant was appointed the youngest advocate general of Haryana in July 2000, designated a senior advocate in 2001, and elevated as a permanent judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 9, 2004.
He later served as Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court from October 2018 until his elevation to the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019. Since November 2024, he served as the chairman of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee.
Justice Kant has been part of several landmark verdicts, including orders on the abrogation of Article 370, the revision of Bihar’s electoral rolls, and the Pegasus spyware case.
As a Supreme Court judge, Justice Kant was part of the recent presidential reference on the powers of the Governor and President in dealing with bills passed by a state assembly. He was also part of the bench that kept the colonial-era sedition law in abeyance, directing that no new cases be registered under it until a government review.
While hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission’s decision to undertake Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list in Bihar – where the Assembly Elections were recently held – Justice Kant nudged the poll body to disclose the details of 65 lakh voters excluded from the draft electoral rolls in the state.
He was also a part of the bench that appointed a five-member committee headed by former top court judge Justice Indu Malhotra to probe the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Punjab in 2022.
Justice Kant had also upheld the One Rank-One Pension scheme for defence forces, calling it constitutionally valid. He was also on the seven-judge bench that overruled the 1967 Aligarh Muslim University judgment, opening the way for reconsideration of the institution’s minority status.
The newly appointed Chief Justice of India was a part of the bench which heard the Pegasus spyware case. He also led a bench that reinstated a woman sarpanch unlawfully removed from office and called out the gender bias in the matter. Justice Kant is also credited with directing that one-third of seats in bar associations, including the Supreme Court Bar Association, be reserved for women.
