NEW DELHI: The government appointed Justice Surya Kant as the 53rd Chief Justice of India (CJI), the law ministry announced on Thursday.He will formally take oath on November 24, succeeding Chief Justice Bhushan Gavai, and will become the first top justice from Haryana.
Who is Justice Surya Kant?
Born on February 10, 1962, in Petwar, a small village in Hisar district of Haryana, he grew up in a modest household. Until Class VIII, he studied in a village school that had no benches, and students sat on the floor. Justice Kant graduated from Government Post Graduate College, Hisar in 1981 and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Law (LLB) from Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak in 1984.He began his legal career that same year at the District Court, Hisar, before moving to Chandigarh in 1985 to practice at the Punjab and Haryana High Court.On July 7, 2000, he was appointed the youngest Advocate General of Haryana, at just 38 years of age, a record in the state’s legal history. A year later, in March 2001, he was designated as a Senior Advocate.Justice Kant was elevated as a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 9, 2004. He continued his academic journey alongside his judicial duties, earning a Master’s degree in Law from Kurukshetra University in 2011, where he graduated first class first. In October 2018, Justice Kant was appointed the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, before being elevated to the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019.He also served two consecutive terms on the Governing Body of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) between 2007 and 2011, contributing significantly to improving access to justice for the underprivileged.
