Cash row, Waqf Act, Places of Worship Act: Challenges before newly sworn-in CJI BR Gavai

New Delhi, May 14 (IANS) In a landmark moment for the Indian judiciary, Justice B.R. Gavai on Wednesday took over as the Chief Justice of India (CJI), becoming the first Buddhist and only the second member from a Scheduled Caste (SC) background to occupy the highest judicial office of the country.

President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Justice B.R. Gavai in a swearing-in ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

He will remain in office until November 23, 2025, giving him a tenure of just over six months. He was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019, and in the last six years, Justice Gavai authored around 300 judgments on a variety of subjects, including constitutional and administrative law, civil law, criminal law, commercial disputes, arbitration law, electricity law, education matters and environmental law.

CJI Gavai’s tenure commences at a time when the judiciary is confronting a series of critical and complex challenges, including restoring public faith in the justice system.

In connection with the cash discovery row, it may be recalled that ex-CJI Sanjiv Khanna, last week, forwarded to the President and the Prime Minister the report of the top court-appointed "in-house" enquiry panel.

With limited time at the helm, CJI Gavai’s challenge will be to plant the seeds to restore institutional credibility to ensure that the judiciary is perceived to function with integrity and transparency.

Earlier in the day, a bench of CJI Gavai and AG Masih declined to give an out-of-turn hearing on a plea seeking criminal prosecution of Justice Yashwant Varma, who is embroiled in a controversy surrounding the alleged discovery of a huge pile of burnt cash in the storeroom attached to his bungalow in the national capital after the fire brigade had gone there to douse a blaze on March 14.

CJI Gavai-led Bench told advocate Mathews J. Nedumpara, the lead petitioner-in-person, to follow the “mentioning procedure” of sending an email to the apex court registry for urgent listing of the petition. Justice Gavai, a seasoned judge with a deep understanding of constitutional law, social equity, and institutional integrity, favoured application of “creamy-layer” principle for excluding the well-off among the SC/ST communities from availing the quota benefits.

Speaking for the majority, in a 7-judge Constitution Bench dealing with the question of whether a sub-classification among reserved category groups for giving more beneficial treatment would be permissible under the Constitution, Justice Gavai said: "When the 9-Judge Bench in Indra Sawhney held that applicability of such a test (creamy layer test) insofar as Other Backward Classes are concerned would advance equality as enshrined in the Constitution, then why such a test should not also be made applicable to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes."

"Can a child of IAS/IPS or Civil Service officers be equated with a child of a disadvantaged member belonging to Scheduled Castes, studying in a Gram Panchayat/Zilla Parishad school in a village?" Justice Gavai asked.

He said putting the children of the parents from the SCs and STs who, on account of the benefit of reservation, have reached a high position and ceased to be socially, economically and educationally backward and the children of parents doing manual work in the villages in the same category would defeat the constitutional mandate.

In his stint as CJI, Justice Gavai will be watched closely for how he handles politically sensitive matters.

Ex-CJI Khanna, on May 5, in view of his impending retirement, opined that the clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, be listed before the Justice B.R. Gavai-led Bench for further hearing. It had directed that the pleas challenging the amendments introduced to the Waqf Act, 1995 be listed this week for hearing.

The batch of pleas challenging the contentious Places of Worship Act, which prohibits the filing of a lawsuit to reclaim a place of worship or seek a change in its character from what prevailed on August 15, 1947, also remain pending before the top court for adjudication. In an interim order passed on December 12, 2024, a ex-CJI Khanna-led Special Bench, ordered that no fresh suits would be registered under the Places of Worship Act in the country, and in the pending cases, no final or effective orders would be passed till further orders.

Even with just over six months in office, CJI Gavai’s approach to these cases will leave an indelible mark on the Indian judiciary. CJI Gavai’s appointment is perceived as representation of historically marginalized communities in the highest echelons of the Indian judiciary.

--IANS

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