Justice Surya Kant, who will be sworn in as the 53rd CJI of India, was part of the verdict on SIR and Pegasus.

Supreme Court Justice Surya Kant will be sworn in as the 53rd Chief Justice of India on Monday.

Justice Surya Kant, who has been involved in several landmark judgments and orders on the abrogation of Articles 370 and 38A in Jammu and Kashmir, the Bihar Election Revision of Electoral Rolls (SIR), and the Pegasus spyware case, will replace Chief Justice B.R. Gavai, who retired on Sunday evening.

Justice Surya Kant will serve as CJI for 15 months.

Justice Surya Kant was nominated as the next Chief Justice on October 30 and will serve in the position for approximately 15 months. He will retire on February 9, 2027, at the age of 65.

Justice Surya Kant was recently part of the Presidential Reference Petition on the powers of the Governor and the President regarding bills passed in the Legislative Assembly. Justice Surya Kant, who was part of the bench that suspended the sedition law, had directed that no new FIRs be registered in this regard until the government reviews it.

Justice Surya Kant was part of several important Supreme Court decisions.

While hearing petitions challenging the Election Commission's decision to exclude 6.5 million voters from the draft electoral roll in Bihar, Justice Kant also urged the Commission to disclose the details of these voters.

The bench headed by Justice Surya Kant constituted a five-member committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Indu Malhotra to investigate the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Punjab in 2022.

It upheld the One Rank, One Pension scheme for the defense forces as constitutionally valid and continued hearing petitions from women officers seeking equality in permanent commissions.

Justice Surya Kant was on the seven-judge bench that overturned the 1967 Aligarh Muslim University decision, paving the way for reconsideration of the institution's minority status. He heard the Pegasus spyware case and formed a committee of cyber experts to investigate allegations of illegal surveillance.

Justice Suryakant is from Hisar

Born on February 10, 1962, in Hisar, Haryana, into a middle-class family, Justice Suryakant has risen from a small-town lawyer to the highest judicial position in the country, where he has been a part of numerous decisions and constitutional matters of national importance. He received a Master of Laws degree from Kurukshetra University in 2011.

Justice Suryakant, who authored several important judgments in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, was appointed Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court on October 5, 2018.