Justice Kant takes oath as 53rd CJI, says tackling pendency of cases his priority

Justice Surya Kant, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, was on Monday sworn in as the 53rd Chief Justice of India (CJI).

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

He succeeds Justice BR Gavai, who retired on November 23 after a tenure of a little over six months. Justice Gavai had on October 27 recommended Justice Kant’s name as his successor. On October 30, the President had appointed Justice Kant as the next CJI.

The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Vice-President CP Radhakrishnan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, several 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 dignitaries from the fields of law and politics. Chief justices/judges of Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Malaysia, Brazil and Kenya were also present, sources said.

After the swearing-in ceremony, Justice Kant reached the Supreme Court where he garlanded the statue of Mahatma Gandhi before occupying the chair of the CJI in court number 1. He shared the Bench with Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice AS Chandurkar.

Setting a new procedural norm on his first day in office as the CJI, Justice Kant said requests for urgent listing of cases must be made in writing, and oral requests would be entertained under “extraordinary circumstances” involving the death penalty and personal liberty cases. The Bench led by the new CJI heard 17 cases in close to two hours before rising for the day.

Justice Kant has said that tackling the huge pendency of cases and encouraging mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism will be his priorities. “Mediation can be a game changer (in reducing pendency),” he said. The CJI has also talked about prioritising setting up of Constitution Benches to dispose of important constitutional questions, which can help clear hundreds of cases pending before high courts.

Born on February 10, 1962, in a middle-class family in Hisar district of Haryana, Justice Kant obtained a bachelor’s degree in law in 1984 from Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak. He later secured 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 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 brings a wealth of experience of more than two decades on the Bench, marked by landmark verdicts on Presidential Reference on removing timelines for governors, abrogation of Article 370, free speech, Pegasus spyware case, 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.