[dropcap]T[/dropcap]HE President of India Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Justices B R Gavai, Surya Kant, Aniruddha Bose and A S Bopanna as judges of the Supreme Court.
After Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice Gavai will be the second Dalit to become the Chief Justice of India, following the retirement of Justice Sanjiv Khanna on May 3, 2025. He will remain in that post till November 23, 2025, after which Justice Surya Kant will be the CJI till February 9, 2027.
The Supreme Court Collegium, comprising the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde, N V Ramana, Arun Mishra and Rohinton Nariman, had on April 12, 2019 recommended to the Union Law Minister the names of Justices Aniruddha Bose and A S Bopanna for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court.
The central government had returned their names for reconsideration. The Collegium, however, on May 9, 2019, reiterated its recommendation to appoint both judges.
On the same day i.e. May 9, 2019, the Supreme Court Collegium also decided to recommend the names of Bombay High Court judge, Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai and Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court Justice Surya Kant for their appointment as judges of the Supreme Court.
With these four new appointments of judges, the Supreme Court will function at its full strength of 31 judges, including the Chief Justice of India.
Justice Bose is presently the Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court and hails from the Calcutta High Court, while Justice Bopanna is the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court and is originally from the Karnataka High Court.
Justice Gavai is a judge from the Bombay High Court while Justice Surya Kant is from the Punjab & Haryana High Court.
