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

Justice Surya Kant—the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court—was on Monday sworn-in as the 53^rd Chief Justice of India.

President Draupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Justice Kant in Hindi in a brief ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here at 10 a.m.

Justice Kant succeeds Justice BR Gavai who retired on November 23 after completing a little over six-month stint.

Justice Gavai had on October 27 recommended Justice Kant’s name as his successor. The President on October 30 had appointed Justice Kant as the Chief Justice of India.

Elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019, Justice Kant will have a close to 15-month tenure as the CJI. He will retire on February 9, 2027.

The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, union ministers, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, outgoing CJI Gavai, sitting and former judges of the Supreme Court and various other dignitaries from the fields of law and politics.

Chief justices/judges of Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Malaysia, Brazil and Kenya also attended Justice Kant’s swearing in as the CJI, sources said.

Justice Kant has said that tackling huge pendency of cases and encouraging mediation as an alternative disputes resolution mechanism would be his priority.

“My foremost agenda is to reduce arrears (of cases). Two things are my top priorities: arrears and mediation. With 90,000 cases pending in the Supreme Court, clearing the oldest matters is essential,” Justice Kant said on November 22 in an interaction with Supreme Court correspondents here.

The CJI-designate favoured mediation as an important tool to reduce huge pendency of cases. “Mediation can be a game changer,” he said.

He has said he will give priority to setting up Constitution Benches to dispose of important matters involving important constitutional questions that could lead to clearing of hundreds and thousands of cases in high courts.

Born in a middle-class family on February 10, 1962, in Hisar district of Haryana, Justice Kant obtained a bachelor’s degree in law in 1984 from Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak. He has the distinction of standing ‘first class first’ in his Master’s degree in law in 2011 from Kurukshetra University.

He earned the distinction of being appointed the youngest Advocate General of Haryana on July 7, 2000, at the age of 38.

He was appointed as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 9, 2004, and assumed charge of the office of the Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh on October 5, 2018.

Justice Kant—who was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019 -- brings a wealth of experience of more than two decades on the Bench, marked by landmark verdicts on abrogation of Article 370, free speech, democracy, corruption, environment and gender equality.

There has been a convention of the CJI recommending the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as his successor. Only twice, it was not followed – Justice AN Ray was appointed the CJI on April 25, 1973 superseding three senior-most judges and Justice MH Beg was appointed the CJI on January 29, 1977 superseding Justice HR Khanna.