At a ceremony on Wednesday at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai was sworn in as India’s 52nd Chief Justice. Justice Gavai was formally appointed to the nation’s top judicial position when President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office. He takes over for Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who retired on Tuesday after being a 65-year-old.
President Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Speaker of the Lok Sabha Om Birla, and a number of Union Cabinet officials congratulated Chief Justice Gavai after the ceremony. In attendance was former Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who wished his successor well.
Chief Justice Gavai is expected to retire in November after serving in the position for just over six months. He joined the Bar and began practicing before the Bombay High Court in 1985, marking the beginning of his legal career. In 2003, he was named an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court, and in 2005, he was made a permanent judge. He was promoted to the Supreme Court in 2019.
Chief Justice Gavai has contributed significantly to a number of important decisions throughout his time as a Supreme Court justice. He served on the bench that supported the Center’s 2016 decision to demonetize the currency and was involved in the recent ruling that declared the electoral bonds program to be unlawful. He has written about 300 rulings, some of which have come from the Constitution Benches and address important questions of fundamental rights.
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After Justice KG Balakrishnan, Justice Gavai is just the second Dalit to hold the position of Chief Justice of India. His father, RS Gavai, was a well-known social crusader, the founder of the Republican Party of India (Gavai), and a former governor of three Indian states, therefore he has a history of serving the public. Additionally, RS Gavai was a member of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.
