- India
- Oct 31
President appoints Justice Surya Kant as next Chief Justice
• President Droupadi Murmu has appointed Justice Surya Kant as the 53rd Chief Justice of India and he will assume charge on November 24.
• He will succeed Justice Bhushan R. Gavai, who demits office on November 23.
• The Department of Justice in the Union Law Ministry issued a notification announcing his appointment.
• Justice Surya Kant will be the CJI for nearly 15 months and will demit office on February 9, 2027 on attaining the age of 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 Surya Kant?
• He was born on February 10, 1962 in Haryana’s Petwar village.
• He earned his law degree from Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak in 1984 and then began his practice the same year at the District Courts, Hisar.
• In 1985, he shifted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh, specialising in constitutional, service, and civil matters.
• On July 7, 2000, he earned the distinction of being appointed the youngest Advocate General of Haryana and was also designated as a senior advocate.
• He served as the Advocate General until his elevation as a permanent judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 9, 2004.
• As a judge, he served on the Governing Body of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) from 2007 to 2011 and later earned a First Class First in his Master’s degree in Law in 2011.
• He was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court on October 5, 2018 and thereafter was elevated to the Supreme Court of India on May 24, 2019.
• Since May 14, 2025, he has been the Executive Chairman of NALSA and also serves on several committees of the Indian Law Institute.
• Across a distinguished four-decade career, Justice Surya Kant has presided over thousands of cases, introduced novel interpretations and authored landmark judgments.