• Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna recommended to the Centre the name of Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai as the next CJI.

• CJI Sanjiv Khanna was sworn in as the 51st CJI on November 11, 2024. 

• Justice Gavai is the second senior-most Supreme Court judge after the incumbent CJI Khanna.

• The letter is written as per convention where the retiring Chief Justice of India nominates the second-most senior judge as successor, whose recommendation has to be approved by the Union government. 

• Once the Centre clears his recommendation, Justice Gavai will become the 52nd Chief Justice of India on May 14 after the retirement of CJI Khanna on May 13.

• Justice Gavai would have a tenure of over six months as the CJI. He is due to retire on November 23, 2025.

• The retirement age of Supreme Court judges is 65 years.

Process for appointment of CJI

• The Chief Justice of India and the judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President under clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution.

• According to the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), which governs the process of appointment of judges in higher judiciary, the outgoing CJI initiates the process of naming the successor after getting a communication from the law ministry. 

• The MoP, however, does not specify the time limit for the initiation of the process of recommending the name of the successor CJI.

• Appointment to the office of the CJI should be of the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court considered fit to hold the office. 

• The Union minister of law, justice and company affairs would, at the appropriate time, seek the recommendation of the outgoing Chief Justice of India for the appointment of the next Chief Justice of India.

• Whenever there is any doubt about the fitness of the senior-most judge to hold the office of the Chief Justice of India, consultation with other judges as envisaged in Article 124(2) of the Constitution would be made for appointment of the next Chief Justice of India.

• After receipt of the recommendation of the Chief Justice of India, the Union minister of law, justice and company affairs will put up the recommendation to the Prime Minister who will advise the President in the matter of appointment.

Who is Justice Gavai?

• 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 had joined the bar on March 16, 1985 and was the standing counsel for the Municipal Corporation of Nagpur, Amravati Municipal Corporation and Amravati University.

• He was appointed as 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.

• He became a permanent judge of the High Court on November 12, 2005.

• Justice Gavai was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019.

• He has been a part of several Constitution benches in the apex court which delivered path-breaking verdicts.

• 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 the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir.

• Another five-judge Constitution bench, of which Justice Gavai was a part, annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding.

• He was a 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 Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination 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, which form a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation for the uplift of castes that are socially and educationally more backward among them.

• In an important verdict, a bench headed by Justice Gavai laid down pan-India guidelines and said no property should be demolished without a prior show cause notice and the affected 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.

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