President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Justice BR Gavai as the 52nd Chief Justice of India (CJI) on Wednesday. Justice Gavai took the oath of affirmation in Hindi.

Appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019, Justice Gavai will serve a tenure of over six months, demitting office on November 23. He succeeds former CJI Sanjiv Khanna.

The swearing-in ceremony, held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, was attended by several distinguished dignitaries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, and other Union Cabinet ministers. Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and former President Ram Nath Kovind were also present at the event.

Justice Gavai is the son of the late RS Gavai, a veteran Republican Party of India (Gavai faction) leader and former Governor of Bihar, Kerala, and Sikkim.

Beginning his legal career in 1985, Justice Gavai initially worked alongside the late Raja S. Bhonsale, former Advocate General and High Court Judge, before establishing his independent practice at the Bombay High Court in 1987.

Over the years, Justice Gavai has been part of several significant Constitution benches in the Supreme Court. Notably, in December 2023, he was a member of the five-judge Constitution bench that unanimously upheld the Centre’s decision to abrogate the provisions of Article 370, which had granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.