Justice B.R. Gavai recommended as next Chief Justice of India

CJI Khanna will demit office on May 13, after a tenure of around 6 months in the highest judicial office of the country.

Justice Gavai, in line to be the 53th CJI, will have a tenure of over 6 months and he will demit office on November 23, 2025.

CJI Khanna wrote to the Central government, recommending the name of Justice Gavai, as per the established practice of the CJI naming the senior-most judge as his successor.

According to the Memorandum of Procedure, the Centre asks the outgoing CJI to name the successor, just before a month of retirement.

Justice Gavai was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on May 29, 2019. Appointed as Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court in November 2003, and became a permanent Judge in November 2005.

Before elevation to the Bench, he practised in Constitutional Law and Administrative Law, and acted as Standing Counsel for Municipal Corporation of Nagpur, Amravati Municipal Corporation, and Amravati University. He was appointed as Assistant Government Pleader and Additional Public Prosecutor in the Bombay High Court, Nagpur Bench in August 1992 and served till July 1993.

He was appointed as Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor for the Nagpur Bench on January 17, 2000.

In the apex court, Justice Gavai, a part of the 7-judge Constitution Bench dealing with the question of whether a sub-classification amongst reserved category groups for giving more beneficial treatment would be permissible under the Constitution, suggested the application of the "creamy layer" principle to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) for availing benefits of affirmative action.

In his detailed opinion, Justice Gavai said: "When the 9-Judge Bench in Indra Sawhney held that applicability of such a test (creamy layer test) insofar as Other Backward Classes are concerned would advance equality as enshrined in the Constitution, then why such a test should not also be made applicable to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe."

"Can a child of IAS/IPS or Civil Service officers be equated with a child of a disadvantaged member belonging to Scheduled Castes, studying in a Gram Panchayat/Zilla Parishad school in a village?" he asked.

Justice Gavai said putting the children of the parents from the SCs and STs who, on account of the benefit of reservation, have reached a high position and ceased to be socially, economically and educationally backward and the children of parents doing manual work in the villages in the same category would defeat the constitutional mandate.