Justice Surya Kant will be administered the oath of office as the 53rd Chief Justice of India by President Droupadi Murmu on Monday morning, formally succeeding Justice Bhushan R. Gavai who demitted office upon attaining the retirement age of 65, thereby commencing a 14-month tenure that is widely expected to focus intensely on structural transformation of the country’s overburdened judicial apparatus.

Born on February 10, 1962, into a middle-class family in Hisar, Haryana, Justice Kant began legal practice in 1984, rapidly earned recognition for handling complex constitutional and service matters, became the youngest Advocate General of Haryana in 2000, was designated senior advocate in 2001, elevated as a permanent judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2004, served as Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court from October 2018, and was appointed to the Supreme Court bench on May 24, 2019.

Addressing the media on Saturday, the CJI-designate declared that eradicating the colossal backlog of 5.29 crore pending cases, of which 4.65 crore languish in district and subordinate courts alone, would be his foremost priority, announcing that one of his earliest initiatives will involve direct engagement with Chief Justices of all High Courts to diagnose and resolve systemic impediments that have long paralysed lower judiciary functioning.

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Justice Kant revealed ambitious plans to immediately constitute multiple Constitution Benches comprising five, seven, and nine judges within the coming weeks to expeditiously decide landmark cases that have remained unresolved for years, while simultaneously launching a nationwide drive to strengthen alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, with special emphasis on mediation at community level and for disputes between states and between the Centre and states.

On the potential deployment of artificial intelligence to ease judicial congestion, he adopted a measured stance, acknowledging its utility in procedural automation yet stressing that public confidence demands substantive adjudication remain the preserve of human judges, as he prepares to steer the Supreme Court toward a historic overhaul aimed at restoring swift and accessible justice across the entire judicial hierarchy.

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