Justice Surya Kant must turn promise into performance

THE President has appointed Justice Surya Kant as the next Chief Justice of India. A boy from the fields of Haryana is set to occupy the Chief Justice's chair. That, in itself, is not the story. The real question is what happens next.Justice Surya Kant's rise, from sitting on empty sacks in a bench-less government school to presiding over the highest judicial Bench in the country, is inspiring. But such narratives, if left unexamined, can become empty symbolism. The arc of his story matters only if it transforms the judiciary itself. What counts is whether he converts his life's struggle into institutional empathy, whether his presence makes the court more functional, accessible, and just.In this moment, I am reminded of Alistair Cooke's eulogy on the death of Earl Warren, former Chief Justice of the US in 1974. Warren, too, came from modest beginnings. His time on the Bench redefined what a court could mean to a democracy. The comparison is distant in history, but close in relevance.Earl Warren's court did not merely pronounce the law, it entered the bloodstream of American life. It was felt in desegregated classrooms, in police stations where suspects read their rights, in electoral maps redrawn to reflect real populations. As Cooke wrote, Warren turned the court into "the people's court," a forum visibly alive to the lives of ordinary people. That is where India's judiciary must go.Too often, the Indian Supreme Court today appears distant, not only physically, but procedurally and emotionally. Listings drag. Judgments delay. Petitions vanish into adjournment. The appearance of institutional lethargy corrodes public trust. Justice Surya Kant's appointment, if it is to matter, must be seen not just as elevation, but as renewal. For a judiciary that commands no urgency soon commands no faith.The Chief Justice-Designate comes from the soil of Petwar in Hisar district, a village marked more by struggle than privilege. That experience must shape not only his moral compass but also his administrative resolve.Cooke traced Warren's transformation to an episode from his childhood: a long railway strike that left his family nearly starving. That early deprivation stayed hidden until, decades later, it re-emerged in the judge's empathy. Cooke called it a "subdued element of his character" that rose to the surface when the robe gave him power to act.There is a parallel hope here: that Justice Surya Kant does not leave his story at the gates of the court but brings its urgency to the Bench. The child who studied by lamplight must demand light-speed efficiency from a system clogged by complacency. Justice is not delivered only through landmark verdicts. It is also delivered through systems that work, listings that move, judgments that arrive, and an institution that looks like it cares.It is tempting, particularly in a country as diverse as ours, to celebrate representation as achievement. But if the appointment of a farmer's son results only in rhetoric, the system gains little. Justice Surya Kant's challenge is not to be symbolic, it is to be functional.He must treat the Supreme Court as a working engine, not a ceremonial house. That means faster disposal. Better use of constitutional Benches. Consistency in listing. Assertiveness on judicial appointments. And a clear message that the court will not shy away from uncomfortable cases.Warren's court was not loved by all. In fact, it was vilified by many. Billboards saying "Impeach Earl Warren" mushroomed across the American South. President Eisenhower called his appointment "the biggest damn-fool mistake I ever made." Yet, over time, the Warren court came to be recognised as an institutional anchor. It had, at least, been alive. The Indian judiciary today has the opposite problem. It is not hated. It is worse: it is feared to be irrelevant.Eisenhower appointed Warren to "cool" the court. He thought he was choosing a moderate, predictable conservative. But on the Bench, Warren began to see things in a "different light." That transformation, Cooke noted, was neither planned nor performative, it emerged from within, catalysed by the power and responsibility of the robe. Every executive desires a predictable judiciary. But a living democracy needs an assertive one.Justice Surya Kant must remember that he owes allegiance not to past favours or future ambition, but to the promise of constitutional justice. His conduct must signal to every arm of the state that the judiciary remains independent, not just in principle, but also in practice. He must resist the temptation to preserve harmony through inaction. Far too often, silence has masqueraded as discretion. The better path is not confrontation, but clarity. A court that speaks clearly, acts promptly, and treats power with parity is one that earns public trust.Transformation does not always announce itself in grand judgments. Often, it is found in the routine: in hearing bail applications on time, in reducing adjournments, in insisting that the registry function as a service wing, not a bottleneck. Justice Surya Kant's greatest impact may lie in these everyday choices. He does not need to deliver one Brown vs Board. He needs to deliver a thousand small affirmations that the system moves, sees, listens. Warren's legacy, after all, was not just what he ruled, but how his court became a place where the American public felt heard. He turned the Bench into a mirror of national conscience. Justice Surya Kant must turn the Bench into something else: a machine that works.This is a moment full of promise, but promise alone is never enough. To echo Cooke, Warren did not set out to be a revolutionary. The Bench made him one. In the same way, we do not ask Justice Surya Kant to become a judicial crusader. But we do expect him to become a restorer of faith.His story has been written many times in celebratory profiles: the boy under the blanket, the village without lights, the field without benches. Now he must write the next chapter, one that takes place not in memory, but in motion.At the end of his term, let us not merely say, "He rose from the soil." Let us say, "He brought the soil with him and made the system grow." That would be a legacy worthy of his journey.

Justice Surya Kant must turn promise into performance

The true test of Justice Surya Kant lies not in where he came from, but in what he changes.

Sanjay Hegde

Justice Surya Kant must turn promise into performance

The true test of Justice Surya Kant lies not in where he came from, but in what he changes.

Sanjay Hegde

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