New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday cleared the appointment of Supreme Court judge, Justice B.R. Gavai, as the next Chief Justice of India (CJI).

“In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, Judge of the Supreme Court, to be the Chief Justice of India with effect from 14th May, 2025,” said a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.

Justice Gavai will be the 52nd CJI and is expected to serve for a little over six months, demitting office on November 23, 2025.

He was elevated to the Supreme Court on May 29, 2019. Earlier, he served as a judge of the Bombay High Court, first as an additional judge from November 2003 and later as a permanent judge from November 2005.

Justice Gavai was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court on May 29, 2019. Appointed as Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court in November 2003, he became a permanent Judge in November 2005.

Before elevation to the Bench, he practised in constitutional law and administrative law, and acted as Standing Counsel for Municipal Corporation of Nagpur, Amravati Municipal Corporation, and Amravati University. He was appointed as Assistant Government Pleader and Additional Public Prosecutor in the Bombay High Court, Nagpur Bench in August 1992 and served till July 1993. He was appointed as Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor for the Nagpur Bench on January 17, 2000.

In the Supreme Court, Justice Gavai has served on several significant benches, including the recent 7-judge Constitution Bench examining whether sub-classification within reserved categories for more targeted affirmative action is permissible under the Constitution.

In a notable opinion during those proceedings, he advocated applying the ‘creamy layer’ principle to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, questioning whether children of high-ranking officers from these communities should continue to receive reservation benefits on par with children from economically and socially disadvantaged backgrounds.

Justice Gavai said putting the children of the parents from the SCs and STs who, on account of the benefit of reservation, have reached a high position and ceased to be socially, economically and educationally backward and the children of parents doing manual work in the villages in the same category would defeat the constitutional mandate.