CJI Gavai Recommends Justice Surya Kant - Supreme Court's Seniormost Judge - As Successor

Chief Justice of India B R Gavai has proposed the name of Justice Surya Kant, the seniormost judge of the Supreme Court, as his successor to the Centre. CJI BR Gavai will retire on November 23. Once notified

by the government, Justice Surya Kant will become the 53rd Chief Justice of India and will serve until his retirement on February 9, 2027 — a tenure of about 14 months.Conventionally, the letter is sent a month before the incumbent CJI retires on attaining the age of 65 years.Justice Surya Kant, born in a middle-class family on February 10, 1962, in Hissar district of Haryana, became a top court judge on May 24, 2019.Once appointed, he will have a tenure of nearly 15 months as the CJI till his retirement on February 9, 2027.Justice Surya Kant brings to the country’s top judicial office a wealth of experience spanning two decades on the Bench, marked by landmark verdicts on abrogation of Article 370, free speech, democracy, corruption, environment and gender equality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXlZAI_zQj0

Justice Surya Kant was part of the historic bench that kept the colonial-era sedition law in abeyance, directing that no new FIRs be registered under it until a government review.He nudged the Election Commission to disclose details of 65 lakh excluded voters in Bihar, showing his commitment to electoral transparency. He also made history by directing that one-third of seats in bar associations, including the Supreme Court Bar Association, be reserved for women.Justice Surya Kant was part of the bench that appointed a five-member committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Indu Malhotra to probe the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2022 Punjab visit, saying such matters required “a judicially trained mind.”He upheld the One Rank-One Pension (OROP) scheme for defence forces, calling it constitutionally valid, and continues to hear petitions of women officers in the armed forces seeking parity in permanent commission.He was on the seven-judge bench that overruled the 1967 Aligarh Muslim University judgment, opening the way for reconsideration of the institution's minority status.He was part of the bench that heard the Pegasus spyware case, which appointed a panel of cyber experts to probe allegations of unlawful surveillance, famously stating that the state cannot get a “free pass under the guise of national security.”At present, Kustice Surya Kant is hearing a batch of petitions seeking the scrapping of Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.Key Judgments passed by Justice Surya Kant on Constitutional and Criminal Matters* Abolition of Article 370: Justice Kant was part of the Constitution Bench that upheld the presidential orders abolishing Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.* Aligarh Muslim University's Minority Status matter which has been referred to a new Bench for wider hearing * Pegasus Spyware: He was on the bench that appointed an expert committee to probe the allegations regarding the use of Pegasus spyware for surveillance. As per preliminary findings Central government has got a clean chit* Bail on Social Media Posting: In the 2022 bail case of fact-checker Mohammed Zubair, Justice Kant stated that a blanket restriction on a petitioner's freedom to express an opinion is disproportionate to bail conditions and has a "chilling effect" on free speech. * India’s Got Latent case: Pulled up Ranveer Allahabadia and his team for vulgarity, very dirty depraved mind and speaking like a pervert , asked centre to initiate regulatory measures for OTT platforms, youtube, social media and bring down vulgar content and draft guidelinesWith inputs from PTI