New Delhi: President Draupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Justice Surya Kant as CJI at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. PM Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and others were present at the ceremony.
Justice Surya Kant was sworn in as the 53rd Chief Justice of India (CJI) today. He will hold the highest judicial post in the country for 14 months.
President Draupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Justice Kant. Justice Surya Kant succeeds current CJI Bhushan R. Gavai.
Earlier, the President had appointed Justice Surya Kant as the next Chief Justice of India “using the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution,” following the recommendation of CJI Gavai.
Justice Gavai, who stepped down as CJI on Sunday at the age of 65, continued the tradition of appointing the most senior Supreme Court judge as his successor.
Be aware that Justice Surya Kant, born on February 10, 1962, into a middle-class family in Haryana, began his legal career in Hisar in 1984, then moved to Chandigarh to practice in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Over the years, he handled a variety of constitutional, service, and civil matters, representing universities, boards, corporations, banks, and the High Court itself. He was appointed Haryana’s youngest Advocate General in July 2000 and promoted to Senior Advocate in 2001.
Justice Surya Kant was appointed a permanent judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 9, 2004. He served as the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court from October 2018 until his elevation to the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019. Since November 2024, he has been serving as the Chairman of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee.
On Saturday, speaking to the media before assuming charge, CJI-designate Surya Kant said that reducing pendency in the Supreme Court and courts across the country would be his top priority.
He said that his first step as Chief Justice of India would be to work with all High Courts to identify problems affecting the functioning of district and lower courts.
He also announced that Constitution Benches of five, seven, and nine judges would be formed “in the next few weeks” to hear long-pending, urgent cases. Stressing the need to strengthen alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, Justice Surya Kant said, “Mediation will also be implemented effectively to reduce the backlog of millions of cases.”
He said that community mediation should be promoted, especially to reduce disputes between state governments and the central and state governments. He said, “A conducive environment has to be created for this.”
When asked about the scope of using AI to reduce the backlog of cases, Justice Surya Kant said there are many issues and challenges. He said, “It has its benefits, but people also have some concerns. It can be used for procedural matters. However, everyone wants their case to be decided by a judge.”
According to official data available on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) as of July 21, Indian courts are burdened with a backlog of 52.9 million pending cases. Of these, 46.5 million are pending in district and subordinate courts, 63.30 lakh in high courts, and 86,742 in the Supreme Court.
