New Delhi: Justice Surya Kant took oath as the 53rd Chief Justice of India (CJI) today. He was sworn in as the 53rd Chief Justice of India by President Draupadi Murmu. This ceremony was held today at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Justice Surya Kant’s tenure on the post of CJI will be till 9 February 2027. Justice Surya Kant has more than two decades of experience working as a judge. He came to the Supreme Court from the High Court. The decisions he wrote include historic decisions to Article 370, freedom of expression, democracy, corruption, environment and gender equality.

He attended the swearing-in ceremony of Justice Surya Kant.

• Chief Justice of Bhutan Lyonpo Norbu Tshering
• Brazilian Chief Justice Edson Fachin
• Chief Justice of Kenya Justice Martha Koome and Justice Susan Njoki of the Kenya Supreme Court
• Malaysia Justice Tan Sri Datuk Nalini Pathmanathan, Judge of the Federal Court of Malaysia
• Chief Justice of Mauritius Bibi Rehana Mungali-Gulbul
• Chief Justice of Nepal Prakash Man Singh Raut with Nepal Supreme Court Judge Sapna Pradhan Malla and former Nepal Supreme Court judge Anil Kumar Sinha.
• Chief Justice of Sri Lanka P. Padman Suresan along with Sri Lankan Supreme Court judge Justice S. Thurairaja, PC and Justice A H M D Nawaz will be included

How was Justice Surya Kant’s childhood?

Justice Surya Kant was born in Petwar village of Hisar district, Haryana on 10 February 1962 in a teacher’s family. In his childhood he remained far away from the urban glare. He saw a city for the first time when he went to Hansi town in Hisar to appear for the Class 10 board exams. He studied till eighth standard in the village school only. There were not even benches in that school.

He graduated from Government Post Graduate College, Hisar in 1981 and studied law from Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak in 1984. In the same year, he started practicing law from the district court of Hisar. But in 1985, he came to Chandigarh to practice in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In July 2000, he was made Advocate General. He was the youngest Advocate General of Haryana. He was made senior advocate in March 2001. After this, in January 2004, he was made a permanent judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court. He took oath as the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court on October 5, 2018. He was made a judge of the Supreme Court on 24 May 2019 from Himachal Pradesh High Court.

Serious, intelligent and balanced jurist

People who have worked with Justice Surya Kant consider him to be a serious, intelligent and balanced jurist. Before joining the Supreme Court, he served in the Punjab and Haryana High Court for about 14 years. After this he became the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court and then was appointed judge of the Supreme Court. During his career he always showed sensitivity on issues like protection of public resources, land acquisition and compensation, rights of victims, reservation policies, and constitutional balance.

While serving as a judge in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh for 14 years. There Justice Surya Kant gave many historic decisions. In this, a decision was given regarding giving the jail prisoners the right to have children through marital union or artificial insemination. Justice Surya Kant was a member of the full bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which in 2017 had ordered a cleanup and investigation of the Dera following the violence following the arrest of its chief. In this decision, he had also given instructions to conduct a central inquiry into the financial irregularities of the camp.

Major decisions given in Supreme Court

As a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Surya Kant wrote about 80 judgments. In this, the 1967 decision to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was rejected, which opened the way for reconsideration of the minority status of the institution. Apart from these, cases like the petition challenging Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, granting bail to the then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Excise Policy case of Delhi are included. He was also part of the bench hearing the case to ‘Pegasus spyware’, which constituted a panel of cyber experts to investigate allegations of illegal surveillance. The court had said that the state cannot get a free pass in the name of national security.