India will get its first Buddhist Chief Justice, Justice BR Gavai will take oath as CJI today

New Delhi. Today (Wednesday) on 14 May, a new chapter is going to be added in the judiciary history of the country. The country is going to get its first Buddhist Chief Justice in the form of Justice Bhushan Ramakrishna Gavai. Justice Gavai will take oath as the 52nd Chief Justice (CJI) of the country.

The special thing is that he will be the second judge from the Scheduled Caste to hold the highest judicial post. Justice Sanjiv Khanna had recommended the name of BR Gavai as CJI. Justice Sanjiv’s tenure ended on 13 May.

Justice Gavai’s tenure will start from May 14 and will last till 23 November 2025. Not only is the judiciary expected to take important decisions under his leadership. But he will also give a new direction to the judicial legacy. He has previously given important judgments on many sensitive and constitutional matters.

Important decisions of which Justice Gavai was a part
Justice Gavai has been a part of many important decisions as a member of the Constitution Bench, which have been historic in themselves. In which there was strong criticism of the bulldozer action and strict guidelines were given to deal with it.

Justice Gavai was a member of the Constitution Bench which gave judgments in controversial cases like declaring the decision of the Modi government at the Center to nullify Article 370 in 2019 as constitutional, declaring the electoral bond scheme unconstitutional and justifying the 2016 demonetization decision as the right decision, staying the sentence of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the ‘Modi surname’ defamation case and granting regular bail to Teesta Setalvad in the case related to the 2002 Godhra riots.

Introduction of Justice Gavai
Justice BR Gavai was born on 24 November 1960 in Amravati, Maharashtra. He started practicing law on 16 March 1985. He did independent practice in Bombay High Court from 1987 to 1990. After this, he focused on advocacy in Nagpur Bench. He was a government lawyer in Nagpur Bench from 1992–1993.

In January 2000, Justice Gavai was appointed Public Prosecutor for Nagpur Bench. On 14 November 2003, he was appointed Additional Judge of Bombay High Court. He became a permanent judge on 12 November 2005. He was appointed as a Supreme Court judge on 24 May 2019.

Judicial Contribution and Legacy
According to the Supreme Court website, in the last six years, Justice Gavai has been a part of more than 700 benches and authored about 300 judgments. These included various subjects including constitutional and administrative law, civil law, criminal law, commercial disputes, arbitration law, electricity law, education matters, environmental law, etc.