CJI Gavai’s tenure saw 21 judges from marginalised castes appointed

New Delhi: Ten judges from Scheduled Caste category, eleven from Other Backward Classes and Backward Classes were appointed to different high courts of the country during Chief Justice of India BR Gavai’s tenure of around six months.

Justice Gavai, who is the country’s first Buddhist and second Dalit CJI, headed the three-member collegium of the apex court which recommended 129 names to the government for appointment as judges of different high courts, out of which 93 names were cleared.

Five judges — Justices NV Anjaria, Vijay Bishnoi, AS Chandurkar, Alok Aradhe and Vipul Manubhai Pancholi — were also appointed to the apex court during his tenure.

According to the details of appointment of judges uploaded on the apex court’s website from May 14 onwards, when Justice Gavai became Chief Justice of India, 93 names cleared by the government for the high court included 13 judges from minority communities and 15 women judges.

Five of them are related to former or serving judges and 49 judges were appointed from the Bar while rest were from the service cadre.

CJI Gavai is set to demit office on Sunday, November 23 and his successor Justice Surya Kant will be sworn in as the next Chief Justice of India on November 24.

Justice Gavai, the 52nd Chief Justice of India, has delivered prodigious verdicts during his six-month tenure, including those that stayed key provisions of the Waqf law, struck down the tribunal reforms statute and allowed the Centre to grant post facto green nods to projects.

Friday was the last working day of CJI Gavai, who was the second Dalit after K G Balakrishnan to head the Indian judiciary.

Overwhelmed by rich tributes on his last working day, CJI Gavai said he was leaving the institution “with a full sense of satisfaction and contentment” and as a “student of justice” on concluding four decades of journey as a lawyer and a judge.