President Murmu Approves Appointment Of Justice BR Gavai As 52nd Chief Justice Of India

The Central Government has cleared the appointment of Supreme Court judge Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai as the next Chief Justice of India (CJI).

He will assume office on May 14, 2025, succeeding incumbent CJI Sanjiv Khanna, who retires a day earlier.

Justice BR Gavai As Next CJI

The President, exercising the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, appointed Shri Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, Judge of the Supreme Court, as the Chief Justice of India with effect from 14th May, 2025, according to a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.

Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal announced the appointment on the social media platform X, stating that the Constitution of India vested the power to make the appointment.

Meghwal posted, “In exercise of the powers conferred by the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, Judge of the Supreme Court of India as the Chief Justice of India with effect from 14th May, 2025.”

CJI Sanjiv Khanna Recommends Justice BR Gavai As Successor

Justice Sanjiv Khanna, the current CJI, had formally recommended Justice Gavai as his successor earlier this month.

Justice Gavai will become the 52nd Chief Justice of India and will hold office until November 23, 2025, marking a tenure of just over six months.

Judicial Career And Background

Justice Gavai began his judicial career as an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court in November 2003 and became a permanent Judge in November 2005. He was elevated to the Supreme Court on May 29, 2019.

Before joining the bench, Justice Gavai practised constitutional and administrative law and served as Standing Counsel for various municipal corporations and a university.

The government appointed him as Assistant Government Pleader and Additional Public Prosecutor in the Bombay High Court (Nagpur Bench) in 1992, and later promoted him to Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor in 2000.

The government appointed him as Assistant Government Pleader and Additional Public Prosecutor in the Bombay High Court (Nagpur Bench) in 1992, and later promoted him to Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor in 2000.

Key Judicial Contributions

In the Supreme Court, Justice Gavai has been part of several landmark benches.

Notably, he served on the 7-judge Constitution Bench examining whether sub-classification within reserved categories is constitutionally valid.

He proposed extending the ‘creamy layer’ principle, currently applied to Other Backwards Classes (OBCs), to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).

Justice Gavai observed, “Since the 9-Judge Bench in Indra Sawhney held that applying the creamy layer test to Other Backward Classes advances constitutional equality, we must ask why the same test should not apply to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as well.”

He further questioned whether it was equitable to treat the children of high-ranking civil servants from SC/ST communities the same as children of manual labourers from rural backgrounds under the same reservation category.

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