The Citizens’ Judge: Justice BR Gavai Takes Over As CJI On May 14

On July 1, 2023, a Saturday night which generally considered a sacrosanct holiday for the bench and bar, Justice Gavai could have been found in the Supreme Court premises reading a High Court order for the arrest of civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad. He would on July 3 author the judgement that granted Setalvad protection from arrest. His subtle but firm manner was on display when he questioned the Union government라이브 바카라 argument that Setalvad needed to be in custody for further investigations. “But, you have not even interrogated Setalvad for a single occasion since the lower court had given its interim order,” he pointed out gently.

Most people from the bar and the bench have enthusiastically endorsed Justice Gavai라이브 바카라 new role as Chief Justice of India (CJI). “After six chief justices who miserably failed; we saw Justice [Sanjiv] Khanna was a great revelation, and I would say that Justice Gavai will be the ultimate protector of citizens,” says senior advocate Dushyant Dave.

Humble, yet Historical, Beginnings

Son of former parliamentarian Ramkrishna Suryabhan ‘Dadasaheb’ Gavai, Justice B.R. Gavai is set to be sworn in as CJI on May 14, 2025. He will be India라이브 바카라 first Buddhist Chief Justice. Hailing from humble beginning, Justice Gavai was born in Daryapur, Amravati. At a recent gathering with the media on May 10, he said he still visits his home village on his father라이브 바카라 birth and death anniversary. 

Those who know him say the fact that he will be India라이브 바카라 second Dalit Chief Justice, after Justice KG Balakrishnan, is the least important thing about this moment. “He's a judge who respects the constitutional rights of citizens and that's most important in today's environment where judges are very afraid of protecting the constitutional rights of citizens,” says Dave.

Justice Gavai has not only carried on his family라이브 바카라 reputation for social activism, but has also modelled it over the years during his tenure in the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court. He라이브 바카라 remembered by old and current colleagues and lawyers as someone with a soft manner and an iron grip on the law.

Speaking about Gavai from his experience working with him as a judge in the Bombay High Court, Justice Gautam Patel says that he noticed that the senior judge was well-read and understood even those complicated areas of the law that were not part of his practice when he was a lawyer. Even then “he would give very insightful judgments demonstrating understanding, insight, mastery, ability to read a statute and appreciate the law—very uncommon,” says Justice Patel.

Others in the Bombay High Court also echo Justice Patel라이브 바카라 sentiment.

“Judging requires patience, the ability to sift chaff from grain, identifying where the justice of the case lies, and delivering a well-considered judgement,” says Senior Advocate Janak Dwarkadas. He adds, “The judgement must be well reasoned, and it must tell the losing party why it lost, rather than reciting the facts and setting out the conclusion. A well-reasoned judgement also helps as a precedent for the point of law it decides. Having appeared in many matters before Justice Gavai, when he was a judge in the Bombay High Court, I witnessed all these fine qualities in him, which is what set him apart.”

Since May 2019, when Justice Gavai was elevated to the apex court, he has been part of some of the most watched and important judgements of our times. He was on the bench that upheld the abrogation of Article 370, rapped the States over ‘bulldozer justice’, dismissed the contempt case against advocate Prashant Bhushan, and heard the case for sub-classification within Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. While agreeing that the States had the right to sub-classify Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes, Justice Gavai said it was time to decide whether to exempt the creamy layer of SC/STs from reservation.

In the sub-classification case, Justice Gavai surprised many by agreeing to examine the government라이브 바카라 ‘creamy layer’ argument, negating any stray thoughts that he considered any other factors apart from the law while deciding on cases. “The State must evolve a policy for identifying the creamy layer even from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes so as to exclude them from the benefit of affirmative action,” he said.

The fact that he admires Dr. B.R Ambedkar is well-known, and he regularly quotes from the Constituent Assembly debates to underscore his point in judgements. “I look forward to the Assembly debates he quotes becoming part of jurisprudence in Constitutional matters,” says Shobha Gupta, an Executive Member of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

Justice Gavai라이브 바카라 tenure as CJI comes at a difficult time for the judiciary, which is at the receiving end of accusations of overreach in cases such as its ordering the President to follow a timeline to clear the bills in question in the Tamil Nadu Governor case.

At present, public faith in the courts appears to be at its lowest, with high pendency and the allegations of corruption against a senior judge in the Allahabad High Court. The apex court was also blamed for a lack of accountability when no First Information Report (FIR) was registered against the judge and for a lack of transparency given that the judge in question was still elevated to the bench. A court-appointed inquiry team submitted its investigation report on May 5, 2025, which mean that all eyes will be on Justice Gavai for his handling of the case henceforth.

On a Personal Basis

Judges working under Justice Gavai remember him as a “personable man” who would go “above and beyond” to help his colleagues and their families. Justice Patel recalls a time when he “moved heaven and earth to bring back a young child of a colleague from abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Others who have worked with him in Supreme Court committees, such as Gupta, say, “He is mild-mannered—never raises his voice but always gets his point across.”

Justice Gavai라이브 바카라 Important Judgements

Since his elevation to the top court, Justice Gavai has been part of the bench deciding on matters that have changed the face of India including the judgement for the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and the one against the electoral bonds scheme.

He has demonstrated a sense of calm and constitutional morality in his work. When he rapped the States for their ‘bulldozer culture’, he compared the ‘chilling sight of a bulldozer demolishing a building’ to ‘lawless’ ways of ‘might was right’.

In April, Justice Gavai라이브 바카라 name was on the lips of every student activist in Hyderabad University because he ordered a stay on the Telangana government라이브 바카라 infrastructure project that would have seen the Kancha Gachibowli forest razed. “High-rises are not good company for wild deer,” the judge noted.

During his tenure as CJI as well, Justice Gavai will be heading the bench that will decide  the Speaker라이브 바카라 powers and also whether legislators can be disqualified from service for defecting.

Though he is ‘adroit’ at constitutional law, perhaps Justice Gavai라이브 바카라 appeal at present lies in his simplicity: “The law in his judgements is bang-on, accurate, without any literary flourishes, without any attempt to make it sound greater than it is. There is a clarity and simplicity in that writing which I appreciate. It's total mastery,” says Justice Patel.

Elevation to CJI and Future Plans

On May 10, Justice Gavai held a meeting with journalists, during which he made it clear that he would not be taking any post-retirement assignments. ““I do not have any political ambition…I will not take any post-retirement assignments,” he said.

In the weeks before his elevation to the CJI post, Justice Gavai could be found heading court number 2 in the Supreme Court. “I hardly get time to talk because advocates-on-record come prepared with such thorough arguments,” said Justice B.R. Gavai to a lawyer in his court. Seeing an opportunity to get into the designated Chief Justice라이브 바카라 good books, the advocate-on-record replied, “Your Lordship will have all the time after November 2025.” 

Not missing a beat, Justice Gavai replied, “No, that라이브 바카라 the prerogative of others.”