NEW DELHI, April 29– Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, will be sworn in as the 52nd Chief Justice of India on May 14, following a formal notification from the Centre on Tuesday.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, Judge of the Supreme Court, to be the Chief Justice of India with effect from 14th May, 2025,” read the Department of Justice notification.
President Droupadi Murmu will administer the oath a day after the incumbent, Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, retires on May 13. Justice Gavai will serve a tenure of just over six months before his retirement on November 23, 2025.
The elevation follows the established convention of the outgoing CJI recommending the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as successor. Justice Khanna formally recommended Justice Gavai for the top post on April 16.
Born on November 24, 1960, in Amravati, Maharashtra, Justice Gavai enrolled as an advocate on March 16, 1985. In his early legal career, he served as standing counsel for several civic bodies including the Municipal Corporation of Nagpur and Amravati University.
He was appointed assistant government pleader and additional public prosecutor at the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court in 1992. He later became the principal government pleader and public prosecutor in 2000.
Justice Gavai was elevated as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court on November 14, 2003, and became a permanent judge in 2005. He was appointed to the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019.
Justice Gavai has played a key role in several high-profile decisions that have shaped constitutional and public policy in recent years.
He was part of the five-judge Constitution Bench that unanimously upheld the abrogation of Article 370 in December 2023, ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. In February 2024, he also sat on the bench that struck down the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme, calling it unconstitutional.
He was among the judges who upheld the Union government’s 2016 demonetisation decision, ruling in favor of the policy’s legality. Additionally, Justice Gavai was part of a seven-judge Bench that validated sub-classification within Scheduled Castes for the purpose of reservation benefits.
Currently, he is heading a Bench examining key issues related to forest conservation and wildlife protection.
A Bench led by Justice Gavai also laid down nationwide norms to regulate demolitions, ruling that no property may be razed without first serving a show-cause notice and giving the affected party 15 days to respond. “The rule of law demands procedural safeguards even in enforcement actions,” Justice Gavai observed during the hearings.
Justice Gavai’s appointment aligns with long-standing judicial norms, with only two historical exceptions—in 1973 and 1977—when seniority was overlooked in the appointment of the Chief Justice.
His elevation marks continuity in judicial leadership at a time when the Supreme Court is addressing a wide range of complex constitutional, social, and environmental matters.
