President Droupadi Murmu appoints Justice B R Gavai as next Chief Justice; will take oath on May 14
President Droupadi Murmu has appointed Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai as the 52nd Chief Justice of India.
Justice Gavai will take the oath of office on May 14 after the incumbent CJI Sanjiv Khanna retires.
He has a tenure of more than six months and will retire on November 23, 2025. Supreme Court judges retire at 65.
He will be the second person from the Scheduled Caste community to become CJI. The first was Justice K G Balakrishnan.
A notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice Tuesday said: “In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, Judge of the Supreme Court, to be the Chief Justice of India with effect from 14th May, 2025.”
Union Law Minister Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal shared the notification on the micro blogging site X.
Justice Gavai was elevated as a Supreme Court judge on May 24, 2019. He has been a part of several Constitution benches that have delivered landmark rulings.
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He was part of a five-judge Constitution bench which, in December 2023, unanimously upheld the Centre’s decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 bestowing special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Another five-judge Constitution bench of which Justice Gavai was a part annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding.
He was also part of a five-judge Constitution bench which, by a 4:1 majority verdict, gave its stamp of approval to the Centre’s 2016 decision to demonetise `1,000 and `500 currency notes.
Justice Gavai was part of a seven-judge Constitution bench which, by a 6:1 majority, held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within the Scheduled Castes in order to grant reservation for castes that are socially and educationally more backward among them.
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In another important verdict, a bench headed by Justice Gavai laid down pan-India guidelines and said no property should be demolished without a prior showcause notice. The ruling said that affected persons must be given 15 days to respond.
He is also heading the bench which is hearing matters related to forests, wildlife and protection of trees.
Born on November 24, 1960, at Amravati, Justice Gavai was elevated as an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court on November 14, 2003. He became a permanent judge of the High Court on November 12, 2005.
He joined the Bar on March 16, 1985, and worked with Raja S Bhonsale, former Advocate General and Bombay High Court Judge, till 1987. After 1990, he practised mainly before the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court in Constitutional and Administrative Law. He was the standing counsel for the Municipal Corporation of Nagpur, Amravati Municipal Corporation and Amravati University.
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He was an assistant government pleader and additional public prosecutor in the Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench from August 1992 to July 1993. He was appointed as a government pleader and public prosecutor for the Nagpur bench on January 17, 2000.
According to the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) — a set of documents guiding the appointment, elevation and transfer of High Court and Supreme Court judges — the Law Minister writes to the CJI to name his or her successor. The MoP says the most senior judge of the apex court is considered fit to hold the office of the CJI and the views of the outgoing head of the judiciary have to be sought “at an appropriate time”.