The second senior-most Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice Surya Kant, is set to assume the top-most position of the Indian justice system, after the current CJI Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, who has recommended his name to the Union law ministry. CJI Gavai has sent his letter of recommendation just ahead of his retirement, on November 23, according to PTI.
On October 23 of this year, the government has initiated the process to appoint the next Chief Justice of India and was waiting for the recommendation of CJI Gavai, as per a News18 report. Usually, the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) regulates the appointment of Judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts. According to which the senior-most Judge of the Supreme Court is appointed as the Chief Justice of India.
Justice Surya Kant and his Judicial career
Justice Surya Kant was born in Haryana's Hissar on February 10, 1962. He was nominated as a member of the National Legal Services Authority in 2007. Later, he took oath as the Himachal Pradesh High Court Chief Justice in 2018. In the year 2019, the Supreme Court collegium, responsible for appointing Judges, issued his elevation to the Supreme Court of India.
During his career in the justice system, he has delivered numerous monumental judgments on issues like human rights, jail reform, environment, gender equality, abrogation of Article 370 and many more. One of his recent judgments that drew a lot of attention was surrounding Ranveer Allahabadia's appearance in 'India's Got Latent' case.
He also served on benches that were responsible for handling important cases such as the Bihar Electoral Assembly case, the Nupur Sharma case, the One Rank One Pension case, the Pegasus spyware probe, and many more. Justice Kant led the bench that was responsible for drafting the guidelines for online content.
Following the retirement of CJI BR Gavai, Justice Surya Kant will become the 53rd Chief Justice of India.
