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Justice Surya Kant took oath arsenic the 53rd Chief Justice of India connected Monday (November 24, 2025). He took his oath successful Hindi.
Justice Surya Kant volition stay successful the station for astir 15 months. He volition demit bureau connected February 9, 2027 connected attaining the property of 65 years.
On November 22, 2025, Justice Surya Kant said 1 of the biggest challenges successful his tenure arsenic apical justice would beryllium to bring 90,000 pending cases successful the Supreme Court down to a “manageable” number.
Born connected February 10, 1962 successful Hisar territory of Haryana to a middle-class family, Justice Kant went from being a small-town lawyer to the country’s highest judicial office, wherever helium has been portion of respective verdicts and orders of nationalist value and law matters. He besides has the favoritism of lasting ‘first people first’ successful his Master’s grade successful instrumentality successful 2011 from Kurukshetra University.
Justice Kant had been the taxable of contention implicit a missive written by Justice (now retired) A.K. Goel to past Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. Justice Goel, past an apex tribunal judge, had disagreed with a connection to elevate Justice Kant arsenic Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court. However, the Misra Collegium, successful a notification dated October 3, 2018, went up with Justice Kant’s elevation.
Justice Kant, who penned respective notable judgments successful the Punjab and Haryana HC, was appointed the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh HC connected October 5, 2018.
His tenure arsenic an Supreme Court justice is marked by verdicts connected the abrogation of Article 370, escaped code and citizenship rights.
He was portion of the seat that kept the colonial-era sedition instrumentality successful abeyance, directing that nary caller FIRs beryllium registered nether it until a authorities review.
Justice Kant besides nudged the Election Commission to disclose the details of 65 lakh voters excluded from the draught electoral rolls successful Bihar portion proceeding a batch of petitions challenging the canvass panel’s determination to undertake Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters database successful the poll-bound State.
He is besides credited with directing that one-third of seats successful barroom associations, including the Supreme Court Bar Association, beryllium reserved for women.
Justice Kant was portion of the seat that appointed a five-member committee headed by erstwhile apical tribunal justice Justice Indu Malhotra to probe the information breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sojourn to Punjab successful 2022, saying specified matters required “a judicially trained mind”.
He besides upheld the One Rank-One Pension strategy for defence forces, calling it constitutionally valid, and continues to perceive petitions of women officers successful the equipped forces seeking parity successful imperishable commission.
Justice Kant was connected the seven-judge seat that overruled the 1967 Aligarh Muslim University judgment, opening the mode for reconsideration of the institution’s number status.
He was besides portion of the seat which heard the Pegasus spyware case and which appointed a sheet of cyber experts to probe allegations of unlawful surveillance, famously stating that the authorities cannot get a “free walk nether the guise of nationalist security”.
(With inputs from PTI)
