India's 52nd CJI shaped by life, legal experience.

 

NEW DELHI: When justice Bhushan Ramakrishna Gaval reflects on his life's journey -from a hut in Frezarpura in Maharashtra to the grand court-room of the Supreme Court-he often returns to one defining insight: "If today my son studies in a Delhi's top school, how can he be equated with a boy who studies in a school like the one I did, in a slum?"

That belief-deeply personal and firmly constitutional shaped his landmark opinion in August 2024, favouring sub-clas-sification within the Scheduled Caste quota. It was an act not just of judicial interpretation but of lived understanding and of acknowledging that even within historically disadvantaged groups, privilege can accrue and reproduce, and equity must evolve to account for it.

On May 14, when justice BR Gavai is sworn in as the 52nd Chief Jus tice of India (CJI), he will become only the second from the Dalit community to occupy the high est judicial office in the country, He will demit office on Novem ber 23. Yet justice Gaval's appointment is not merely a matter of identity, but is also the culmination of a career defined by public service, principled grounding, and a judicial out look shaped by constitutional commitment and social realities,

Born on November 24, 1960, in the Frezarpura locality of Amra-vati town-an area dotted with workers homes and makeshift huts-justice Gavai was the eldest of three siblings. His father, the late RS Gavai, was a towering fig-ure in Ambedkarite politics and once dreamt of pursuing law himself. The senior Gavai, who went on to serve as the governor of Bihar, Sikkim and Kerala, ensured his children were raised with discipline. His wife Kamal tal, a former schoolteacher, focussed on making young Bhushan learn the value of hard work-from washing utensils and cooling bhakris (flatbread) to drawing water from borewells after dark.

His empathy did not mean any compromise on legal rigour. As a judge of the Supreme Court, he authored or contributed to sev eral landmark rulings. His bench led the way in safeguarding due process in UAPA and PMLA arrests, granting relief in high-profile cases such as those of Newsclick founder Prabir Pur-kayastha and former Delhi dep-uty chief minister Manish Sisodia. In another case, he reinforced that demolitions without due process flout the rule of law, reit-erating the state's obligation to act with fairness even when deal-ing with alleged law-breakers

In a defining moment last year. justice Gavai delivered a power-ful separate opinion as part of the seven-judge bench that upheld the constitutionality of sub-clas sification within the SC quota. Drawing from personal experi-ence and constitutional principle, he challenged the notion that all beneficiaries of reservation are equally placed a position that resonated deeply with those who have long argued that social jus tice cannot be one-size-fits-all.

In 2023, he was part of the Constitution bench that upheld the abrogation of Article 370, and in 2024, the bench that struck down the opaque electoral bonds scheme For justice  BR Gavai, the judicial robe never distanced him from his sense of self. "I am not a Supreme Court judge once I step out of the courtroom. I consider myself to be an ordinary citizen."said the CJl-designate.