Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Nov 24: Justice Surya Kant will be sworn in on Monday as the 53rd Chief Justice of India, formally beginning a 14-month term at the helm of the nation’s judiciary. President Droupadi Murmu will administer the oath, completing the transition from outgoing Chief Justice Bhushan R.
Gavai, who retired on Sunday at the age of 65. Justice Gavai followed long-standing convention by recommending the senior-most Supreme Court judge, Justice Surya Kant, as his successor.
Born on February 10, 1962, in Haryana, Justice Surya Kant began his legal career in Hisar in 1984 before shifting to Chandigarh to practise at the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Over the decades, he built a distinguished practice spanning constitutional, service and civil law, representing a wide array of public and private institutions, including universities, banks, corporations and even the High Court.
His rapid rise included becoming Haryana’s youngest Advocate General in 2000, receiving the designation of senior advocate in 2001, and being elevated as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2004. He later served as Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court from 2018 until his appointment to the Supreme Court in May 2019. As of November 2024, he has also been leading the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee.
Ahead of assuming office, Justice Surya Kant emphasised that his top priority will be tackling judicial delays. He intends to consult High Courts nationwide to identify obstacles affecting district and subordinate courts. He also announced that long-pending constitutional matters will soon be taken up, with five-, seven- and nine-judge Constitution Benches to be convened in the coming weeks.
He underscored the need to strengthen mediation and other alternative dispute resolution systems to curb the growing backlog. Community mediation, he noted, could play a pivotal role in easing tensions between state governments and between the Centre and states.
Addressing the use of artificial intelligence in the judiciary, Justice Surya Kant acknowledged its potential benefits but cautioned that concerns remain. AI may assist with procedural tasks, he said, but litigants expect their cases to be adjudicated by human judges.
India’s judiciary continues to grapple with a staggering backlog of 5.29 crore pending cases, as per the National Judicial Data Grid. Of these, 4.65 crore cases lie before district and subordinate courts, 63.3 lakh before High Courts, and 86,742 before the Supreme Court.