CJI Khanna recommends Justice Gavai as successor

NEW DELHI: In its 75th year of becoming a republic and after a gap of 15 years, India will get its second CJI from Dalit community in Justice Bhushan Ramakant Gavai.
Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna on Wednesday wrote a customary letter to the Union government recommending the appointment of Justice Bhushan Ramakrishna Gavai, the most senior judge in the Supreme Court, as the next CJI. Justice Khanna will retire on May 13.
The letter to the Union govt declaring his successor to be fit, able and competent to become CJI is customarily written by incumbent CJI a month before his retirement, with some exceptions. CJI Altamas Kabir had unusually delayed sending the customary letter for the appointment of Justice P Sathasivam as his successor.
Justice Gavai

will be the second one from Dalit community, after CJI K G Balakrishnan, to head the judiciary. Justice Balakrishnan had nearly a three- and half-year tenure as CJI that ended in May 2010. In contrast, Justice Gavai will have a tenure for six months and 10 days as CJI.

Justice Gavai, whose father Ramakrishna Suryabhan Gavai was a career politician and senior leader of Ambedkarite movement and one of the founders of established Republican Party of India, will take oath on May 14 to become the 52nd CJI.
He will be the eleventh from the Bombay and Nagpur High Court to head the judiciary. Others from Bombay HC who had become CJI prior to him are the first CJI H J Kania, P B Gajendragadkar, M Hidayatullah, J C Shah, Y V Chandrachud, M H Kania, S P Bharucha, S H Kapadia, S A Bobde and D Y Chandrachud.
Born at Amaravati on Nov 24, 1960, Bhushan R Gavai enrolled as an advocate in March 1985 and worked in the office of former advocate general Raja S Bhonsale, who later became a judge of Bombay HC. Gavai had a flourishing law practice before his appointment as a judge of Bombay HC in Nov 2005 at the age of 45 years.
He is one of those rare category of HC judges who were elevated as judges of the Supreme Court without serving as HC chief justices. Justice Gavai took oath as a judge of the SC on May 24, 2019. He will retire on Nov 23 this year. A votary of free speech, Justice Gavai was part of the five-judge SC bench that validated abrogation of Article 370, upheld the demonetization exercise,
Forest and environment have been close to his judicial heart and as the lead judge of the forest bench, he has zealously guarded against denudation of forest wealth. However, judicially he favours sustainable development, that is permitting essential development without harming nature which means utilization of forest areas would mandatorily require afforestation in a much larger area.