Article 370, rape, bulldozer justice... India's new CJI Justice Gavai has delivered many a landmark verdict

JUSTICE Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, India's 52nd chief justice and its first Buddhist one, has layed a key role in shaping the judicial landscape, penning about 300 verdicts, including landmark rulings on constitutional issues, liberty, and perhaps most importantly against the executive's "bulldozer justice”.

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Justice Gavai, the second Dalit after K G Balakrishnan to head the Indian judiciary, was sworn in by President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday for a six-month tenure ending November 23, 2025.

Rising from humble beginnings to the highest judicial office of the land, Justice Gavai belongs to a village in Maharashtra's Amravati district. He touched his mother's feet after taking oath of office at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Born on November 24, 1960 in Amaravati, he is the son of R S Gavai, a career polliti-cian who started the Republican Party of India (Gavai).

Elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019, Justice Gavai was part of constitution benches that delivered path-breaking verdicts, including on Article 370, electoral bonds and demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes.

It was a bench headed by Justice Gavai that stayed the Allahabad High Court's observations on grabbing a woman's breasts and pulling the drawstrings of her "pyjama" not amounting to attempt to rape, and said it reflected total "insensitivity" and "inhuman approach”.