NEW DELHI: Justice Surya Kant on Monday took oath as the 53rd Chief Justice of India, marking the start of a nearly 15-month tenure at the helm of the judiciary. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath to Justice Kant.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, and commerce minister Piyush Goyal were present at the ceremony.He succeeds Justice BR Gavai, who demitted office on Sunday evening. Appointed on October 30, Justice Kant will serve until February 9, 2027, when he turns 65.
Landmark verdicts and key interventions
Justice Kant was part of the Supreme Court bench that upheld the abrogation of Article 370, kept the colonial-era sedition law in abeyance by directing that no new FIRs be filed, and oversaw the presidential reference on the powers of Governors and the President regarding state bills.Also read: Key judgments Justice Surya Kant was a part ofHe asked the Election Commission to disclose the names of 65 lakh voters excluded from Bihar’s draft rolls, and reinstated a woman sarpanch who was unlawfully removed, pointing to gender bias. He directed that one-third of seats in bar associations, including the Supreme Court Bar Association, be reserved for women.Justice Kant was also on the bench that appointed a committee led by Justice Indu Malhotra to probe the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2022 Punjab visit, observing that such questions required “a judicially trained mind”. He upheld the One Rank-One Pension scheme and continues to hear cases filed by women officers seeking parity in permanent commission. He was part of the seven-judge bench that overruled the 1967 AMU judgment and served on the bench handling the Pegasus spyware case, stating that the state cannot get a “free pass under the guise of national security”.Born on February 10, 1962 in Hisar, Haryana, Justice Kant rose from a small-town practice to the country’s top judicial office. He stood “first class first” in his Master’s degree in law from Kurukshetra University and later served as Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court. Known for his calm approach to public scrutiny, he had earlier said: “Frankly speaking, I call social media ‘unsocial media’ and I do not feel pressured by online comments… Fair criticism is always acceptable.”