Second dalit to hold the post; Justice BR Gavai appointed next Chief Justice of India

NEW DELHI: Dalit Justice BR Gavai appointed as the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He will take oath as the 52nd Chief Justice on May 14. The central government has issued a notification after the President approved the appointment. The current Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna is retiring on May 13. Gavai's appointment is to fill that vacancy.

Gavai is the second Dalit judge to reach the highest position of the Indian judiciary after Justice KG Balakrishnan, a Malayali. His service term will end on November 23.

BR Gavai was born on November 24, 1960 in Amravati, Maharashtra. His father RS ​​Gavai was a leader of the Republican Party of India. He was the governor of Kerala, Sikkim and Bihar. Justice Gavai started practising as an advocate in the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court in March 1985. He became a government advocate in 2000. BR Gavai became a judge of the Bombay High Court on November 14, 2003, and was elevated to a judge of the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019.