Justice Surya Kant Takes Oath as 53rd CJI

Justice Kant formally assumed charge shortly after taking oath in Hindi in the name of God at Rashtrapati Bhavan. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath at a brief ceremony attended by dignitaries including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former CJI B.R. Gavai. He will serve as CJI for nearly 15 months, demitting office on February 9, 2027, upon turning 65.

On his first day in office, CJI Kant heard 17 cases during a two-hour sitting. He introduced a new procedural rule requiring that requests for urgent listing be made in writing, with oral mentions allowed only under “extraordinary circumstances” such as death penalty matters or cases involving personal liberty.

Since his elevation to the Supreme Court, CJI Kant has been part of more than 300 benches. He was also on the seven-judge bench that overturned the 1967 Aligarh Muslim University judgment, reopening the question of its minority status.

He led the bench that granted bail to former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the CBI excise policy case and observed that the agency must dispel the perception of being a “caged parrot.”

In 2021, he was part of the bench that appointed a three-member panel of cyber experts to investigate allegations of Pegasus spyware use, remarking that the state could not claim a “free pass” whenever national security was cited and that the issue could not become a “bugbear” the judiciary avoided.

Coming from a middle-class family in Hisar, Haryana, CJI Kant began his legal career as a small-town lawyer before rising to the highest judicial office. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court in October 2018 before his elevation to the Supreme Court.

He now heads the five-member Supreme Court collegium after his predecessor Justice Gavai retired on Sunday. The reconstituted collegium comprises CJI Kant and Justices Vikram Nath, B.V. Nagarathna, J.K. Maheshwari and M.M. Sundresh. The three-member collegium for appointing high court judges includes the CJI and Justices Nath and Nagarathna.

Although CJI Kant has a tenure of nearly 15 months, the collegium will see only one change during this period, Justice Maheshwari’s retirement on June 28, 2026, after which Justice P.S. Narasimha will join. Following CJI Kant’s retirement, Justice J.B. Pardiwala will enter the collegium.

Outlining his top priorities, CJI Kant recently said addressing the backlog of more than five crore cases across courts and promoting mediation as a “game-changer” for dispute resolution will be his key goals.

He was also part of the five-judge Constitution Bench that ruled the court cannot impose timelines on Governors or the President to grant assent to Bills, while also holding that Governors do not have “unfettered” powers to indefinitely delay such decisions.

His Supreme Court tenure includes important rulings on the abrogation of Article 370, free speech, citizenship rights and keeping the colonial-era sedition law in abeyance.