Article 370, rape, bulldozer justice... India's new CJI Justice Gavai has delivered many a landmark verdict

New Delhi: Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, India's 52nd chief justice and its first Buddhist one, has played a key role in shaping the judicial landscape, penning about 300 verdicts, including landmark rulings on constitutional issues, liberty, and perhaps most importantly against the executive's "bulldozer justice".

Justice Gavai, the second Dalit after K G Balakrishnan to head the Indian judiciary, was sworn in by President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday for a six-month tenure ending November 23, 2025.

Rising from humble beginnings to the highest judicial office of the land, Justice Gavai belongs to a village in Maharashtra's Amravati district. He touched his mother's feet after taking oath of office at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Born on November 24, 1960, the Amaravati born is the son of R S Gavai, a career politician, who started the Republican Party of India (Gavai).

Elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019, Justice Gavai was part of constitution benches that delivered path-breaking verdicts, including on Article 370, electoral bonds and demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes.

It was a bench headed by Justice Gavai that stayed the Allahabad High Court's observations on grabbing a woman's breasts and pulling the drawstrings of her "pyjama" not amounting to attempt to rape, and said it reflected total "insensitivity" and "inhuman approach".

During his tenure as an apex court judge in the last six years, Justice Gavai was part of around 700 benches dealing with matters pertaining to a range of subjects, including constitutional and administrative law, civil and criminal law, commercial disputes, arbitration law and environmental law. He authored about 300 judgments, including constitution bench verdicts on various issues upholding the rule of law and safeguarding fundamental, human and legal rights of the citizens.

As the CJI, Justice Gavai will have to deal with issues such as the huge pendency of cases, including over 81,000 cases in the Supreme Court, to vacancies in courts.

On the judicial side, he will deal with the contentious issue related to the challenge to the validity of much debated Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.

Days before being sworn in as the CJI, Justice Gavai told journalists in an informal chat at his residence here that the Constitution is supreme. He also made it clear he would not take any post-retirement assignments.

He was part of a five-judge constitution bench which in December 2023 unanimously upheld the Centre's decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 bestowing special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Another five-judge constitution bench, of which Justice Gavai was a part, annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding.

He was also part of a five-judge constitution bench which, by a 4:1 majority verdict, gave the stamp of approval to the Centre's 2016 decision to demonetise Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination currency notes.

Justice Gavai was part of a seven-judge constitution bench, which by a 6:1 majority held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within the Scheduled Castes, which form a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation for the uplift of castes that are socially and educationally more backward among them.

A seven-judge constitution bench, including Justice Gavai, ruled that arbitration clause in an unstamped or insufficiently stamped agreement between parties was enforceable as such a defect was curable and did not render the contract invalid.

Justice Gavai was part of a five-judge constitution bench, which in January 2023 ruled that additional restrictions cannot be imposed on the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression of high public functionaries as exhaustive grounds already exist under the Constitution to curb that right.

He penned a landmark verdict laying down pan-India guidelines on demolition and said no property should be demolished without a prior showcause notice and the affected must be given 15 days to respond.

He has also dealt with matters related to forests, wildlife, protection of trees and passed several orders to protect the environment.

Justice Gavai has delivered lectures on various constitutional and environmental issues in various universities and organisations, including Columbia University and Harvard University.

He was elevated as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court on November 14, 2003. He became a permanent judge of the high court on November 12, 2005.

He joined the bar on March 16, 1985 and was the standing counsel for the Municipal Corporation of Nagpur, Amravati Municipal Corporation and Amravati University.

He worked as an assistant government pleader and additional public prosecutor in the Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench from August 1992 to July 1993.

Justice Gavai was appointed as a government pleader and public prosecutor for the Nagpur bench on January 17, 2000.

His predecessor Sanjiv Khanna on April 16 recommended to the Centre Justice Gavai's name as the next CJI.

The law ministry on April 29 issued a notification announcing Justice Gavai's appointment as the 52nd CJI.