Justice BR Gavai to be the next CJI, will take oath on May 14

Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on Wednesday recommended Justice BR Gavai, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, as his successor. Justice Gavai is slated to take oath on May 14 as 52nd CJI.
CJI Khanna is due to retire on May 13.
President Droupadi Murmu will administer the oath of office.
Justice Khanna had taken over as CJI in November 2024, following the retirement of Justice DY Chandrachud upon turning 65.
Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai was born on November 24, 1960, in Amravati. He joined the Bar on March 16, 1985.
Justice BR Gavai became a permanent judge of the high court on November 12, 2005. Since then, he has been part of several Constitution Benches of the Supreme Court that delivered landmark judgments.
He was a member of the five-judge bench that unanimously upheld the Centre’s 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Justice Gavai also played a key role in another five-judge bench that struck down the electoral bonds scheme used for political funding.
He was part of the bench that, by a 4:1 majority, upheld the Centre’s 2016 demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes.
In another major verdict, Justice Gavai was on a seven-judge Constitution Bench that ruled, by a 6:1 majority, that states have the constitutional authority to create sub-classifications within Scheduled Castes to provide targeted reservation for the most backward among them.