Justice Surya Kant was on Thursday appointed as the 53rd Chief Justice of India (CJI). He will assume office on November 24 and serve till February 9, 2027. The Department of Justice in the Union Law Ministry issued the notification of his appointment.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Surya Kant, Judge of the Supreme Court, as the Chief Justice of India with effect from 24th November, 2025,” Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal wrote on platform X.
Justice Surya Kant will succeed Justice Bhushan R. Gavai, who retired from the service on November 23. According to a communiqué issued by the Press Information Bureau, Justice Surya Kant was born on February 10, 1962, in Petwar village, Hisar district, Haryana. He earned his law degree from Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, in 1984, and began his practice the same year at the District Courts in Hisar.
In 1985, he shifted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh, where he specialised in constitutional, service, and civil matters. On July 7, 2000, he was appointed the youngest Advocate-General of Haryana and was designated a Senior Advocate. He served as Advocate-General until his elevation as a permanent judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 9, 2004.
As a judge, he served on the Governing Body of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) from 2007 to 2011 and obtained a First Class First in his Master’s degree in Law in 2011. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court on October 5, 2018, and elevated to the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019. Since May 14, 2025, Justice Surya Kant has been serving as the Executive Chairman of NALSA and is also a member of several committees of the Indian Law Institute.
