Justice Surya Kant on Monday, 24th November, took oath as the 53rd Chief Justice of India at the Rashtrapati Bhawan before the President. Kant took the office oath in Hindi. The appointment comes days after Kant advised the President regarding the timelines for the state bills.
He stated that the governors and the President are not required to settle state bills within the prescribed timelines, as stated earlier by the Tamil Nadu Governor case. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta even lauded Justice Gavai, the outgoing chief justice and his counterpart, Surya Kant, for making the courts more “Indian”. Mehta, while praising both the individuals, said that instead of bringing foreign laws to their verdicts, both Gavai and Kant have used Indian sources of law to give their judgment.
The outgoing chief justice, in an act of camaraderie, left the official car designated for the chief justice, so that the maiden journey of Surya Kant to the Supreme Court was in the car itself. Kant is known for his judgment during the farmers’ protest. He was also part of the panel during the ‘India’s got Latent’ controversy, and was seen drawing the fine line between humour and perversity, which creates a lot of buzz on the internet.
He was also active in creating a panel of senior IPS officers after Operation Sindoor to investigate the posts of scholar Ali Khan Mahmudabad. Justice Kant was part of many other important decisions, including the abrogation of Article 370 and the Supreme Court bench that ruled the electoral bonds as unconstitutional.
