Justice B R Gavai Appointed as 52nd Chief Justice of India, to Take Oath on May 14
New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu has appointed Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai as the 52nd Chief Justice of India (CJI). The senior Supreme Court judge will assume office on May 14, a day after incumbent CJI Sanjiv Khanna demits office upon retirement.
Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal announced the development via social media, stating that the appointment was made under the powers vested in the President by the Constitution of India.
Justice Gavai’s tenure as CJI will be brief, approximately six months, as he is slated to retire in November 2025. Notably, he will be the second Chief Justice from a Scheduled Caste background, after Justice K G Balakrishnan.
Born on November 24, 1960, in Amravati, Maharashtra, Justice Gavai is the son of the late R S Gavai, a former Governor of Bihar and Kerala and a prominent social activist. He began his judicial career as an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court on November 14, 2003 and was made a Permanent Judge on November 12, 2005. Over his 15-year tenure at the High Court, he served at benches in Mumbai, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Panaji.
Justice Gavai was elevated to the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019. During his tenure, he has authored several significant judgments. He led the majority opinion in the Supreme Court’s verdict upholding the 2016 demonetisation exercise, affirming the Centre’s authority and ruling that the decision met the test of proportionality.
In another landmark judgment, he ruled that bulldozing properties of accused individuals without legal procedure is unconstitutional, reinforcing that executive actions must adhere to due process. He was also part of the Constitution Bench that examined the legality and transparency concerns surrounding the now-scrapped Electoral Bond Scheme.
