New Delhi: Justice Surya Kant, known for his role in key rulings on the abrogation of Article 370, revision of Bihar electoral rolls and the Pegasus spyware case, will take oath on Monday as the 53rd Chief Justice of India. He succeeds Justice B R Gavai, who demits office this evening.
Appointed as the next CJI on October 30, Justice Kant will serve for nearly 15 months and retire on February 9, 2027, upon turning 65. Born on February 10, 1962, in Hisar, Haryana, he rose from a modest background to the country’s top judicial post and secured a “first class first” in his LLM in 2011 from Kurukshetra University.
Justice Kant, who authored several significant judgments in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, became Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court on October 5, 2018. His Supreme Court tenure includes landmark verdicts on free speech, citizenship and Article 370.
He was part of the presidential reference on the powers of Governors and the President regarding state bills, a ruling with major federal implications. He also stayed the colonial-era sedition law, halting new FIRs pending government review.
Justice Kant pushed the Election Commission to reveal details of 65 lakh deleted voters in Bihar during scrutiny of the Special Intensive Revision process. He restored a woman sarpanch removed unlawfully, flagged gender bias and mandated one-third reservation for women in bar associations.
He served on the bench that appointed a panel led by Justice Indu Malhotra to probe the 2022 PM Modi security breach, upheld the OROP scheme, and continues hearing women officers’ pleas for parity in permanent commission.
Justice Kant also helped overturn the 1967 AMU ruling, reviving debate on the university’s minority status, and was part of the Pegasus bench that set up a cyber-expert panel, asserting the state cannot claim a “free pass” under national security.
