B R Gavai sworn in as 52nd Chief Justice of India

Born on November 24, 1960, at Amravati in Maharashtra, Justice Gavai 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.

Justice Gavai became a Supreme Court judge on May 24, 2019, and has been a part of several Constitution benches that delivered landmark rulings.

He is the first practising Buddhist to be Chief Justice of India.

The SC collegium in its recommendation elevating Justice Gavai to the Supreme Court had said, “His recommendation, in no way, is to be misconstrued to mean that three senior-most Judges from Bombay High Court (two of whom are serving as Chief Justices) are less suitable than Justice Gavai. On his appointment, the Supreme Court Bench will have a Judge belonging to the Scheduled Caste category after about a decade.”

In an informal interaction with journalists on Sunday, Justice Gavai said that the Constitution is supreme and all organs of state are supposed to work within its parameters. “All three wings of our democracy are supposed to act within the constitutional parameters,” he said.

On Wednesday, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar were among those who attended the function.

Former CJI Khanna, Supreme Court judges Justices Surya Kant, Bela Trivedi, P S Narasimha, and others were also present.