With barely a month left for the retirement of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, the Centre on Thursday initiated the process for the appointment of his successor.
The government has formally written to CJI Gavai, who is due to retire on November 23 on attaining the age of 65, to name his successor, sources said.
According to the memorandum of procedure on the appointment and transfer of Supreme Court and High Court judges, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court considered fit to hold the office should be appointed as the CJI. CJI Gavai is expected to recommend Justice Surya Kant — the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court — as his successor. Born in a middle-class family on February 10, 1962, in Hisar district of Haryana, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in law in 1984 from Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and earned the distinction of being appointed the youngest Advocate General of Haryana on July 7, 2000, at the age of 38. He was appointed as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 9, 2004, and assumed charge of the office of the Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh with effect from October 5, 2018.
Justice Surya Kant was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019. Once appointed, Justice Kant will become the 53rd CJI on November 24 and hold the office for nearly 15 months till February 9, 2027.
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