Through the half-year tenure of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna that begins on November 11, the composition of the Supreme Court Collegium will not see too many changes.
Consisting of the five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice of India, the Collegium is currently responsible for the appointment and transfer of judges in constitutional courts across the country.
As CJI Khanna's tenure commences, the Collegium will comprise Justices BR Gavai, Surya Kant, Hrishikesh Roy and Abhay S Oka.
The coming six months will only see a single change in the Collegium, with future CJI Vikram Nath replacing Justice Roy upon the latter's retirement on January 31, 2025.
Three among the member judges - Justices Gavai, Kant and Nath - will succeed CJI Khanna as Chief Justices of India in that order.
Justice JK Maheshwari will be inducted into the Collegium upon CJI Khanna's retirement on May 13, 2025.
More about the member judges below:
Justice Khanna was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court of India on January 18, 2019, after serving as a judge of the Delhi High Court for fourteen years.
He began his law practice in 1983 in the areas of taxation, constitutional law, arbitration, commercial and environmental matters.
As CJI, Justice Khanna will have a tenure of 183 days, or a little over 6 months. He will retire from service on May 13, 2025.
Justice Khanna is the son of Justice Dev Raj Khanna, who was a judge at the Delhi High Court. He is the nephew of former Supreme Court judge HR Khanna who is known for his dissent in the landmark ADM Jabalpur case.
Justice Khanna has been part of various Constitution Benches recently. He concurred with the majority in the Constitution Bench judgments that upheld the abrogation of Article 370, and struck down the Electoral Bonds scheme, among others.
Most recently, he concurred with the majority opinion in the 7-judge bench decision in the Aligarh Muslim University case, in which the Court held that the minority status of an educational institute will not cease merely because the parliament enacts a law to regulate or govern such institute, or because the institute is being administered by non-minority members.
Justice Gavai was a lawyer practicing before the Bombay High Court specialising in constitutional and administrative law, until he was elevated as a judge of that Court in 2003. He was elevated to the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019.
He was the first Dalit judge in nearly a decade to be appointed to the top court and he will be the second ever Dalit CJI after Justice KG Balakrishnan, who retired in 2010.
Justice Gavai will serve as CJI from May 14, 2025 to November 23, 2025.
Justice Gavai was recently part of Constitution Bench decisions which upheld the Central government's 2016 demonetisation drive, and upheld the power of States to sub-classify reserved category groups.
In the latter case, Justice Gavai was one among four of the judges on the 9-judge bench who called for the identification of a creamy layer among the reserved categories to take them out of the fold of affirmative action.
Justice Kant was a lawyer specialising in constitutional, civil and service matters and was designated a Senior Advocate in 2001.
He held the office of Advocate General of Haryana until his elevation as a permanent judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court on January 9, 2004. He later served as Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court. He was elevated to the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019.
His will have a tenure of over fourteen months as CJI from November 24, 2025 to February 9, 2027.
Recently, Justice Kant dissented from the majority in the Aligarh Muslim University Case, opining that an institution can claim minority status only if it is established and administered by a minority.
He concurred with the majority in the Constitution Bench judgments upholding the abrogation of Article 370 and upholding the validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act of 1955.
Justice Roy was elevated from the Bar as an additional judge of the Gauhati High Court in October 2006 and made permanent in 2008.
He was transferred to the Kerala High Court in 2018, where he served as Chief Justice from August 2018 till his elevation to the Supreme Court on September 23, 2019.
Justice Roy concurred with the majority in Constitution Bench judgments which modified the guidelines pertaining to euthanasia, and upheld the practice of Jallikattu, among others.
He was also part of the Constitution Bench which recommended the creation of a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the CJI to advise the President on appointments to the Election Commission of India until the parliament enacts a law on the subject.
Justice Oka began his practice as an advocate in 1983 in Thane district court, in the chamber of his father Shreeniwas W Oka. He later joined the chamber of Justice VP Tipnis, a former Judge of the Bombay High Court and former Lokayukta.
After being elevated as a judge of the Bombay High Court in August 2003, he was appointed as Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court in May 2019. He was elevated to the Supreme Court on August 31, 2021.
He was part of the Constitution Bench that held that the Court's 2014 judgment striking down the requirement for prior government sanction for CBI investigations against Central government bureaucrats, would have retrospective effect.
Most recently, he was part of the 9-judge bench which held that States have the power to levy cesses on mining and mineral-use activities.
Justice Oka will demit office on May 24, 2025.
Justice Nath began his practice as an advocate in Uttar Pradesh in 1987. He was elevated as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court in September 2004 and made permanent in February 2006.
He was elevated as Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court in September 2019, where he became the first Chief Justice of a High Court to live-stream Court proceedings on YouTube.
He was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on August 31, 2021 and will serve as CJI from February 10, 2027 to September 23, 2027.
Justice Nath was part of the 2023 Constitution Bench decision which struck down the extension of the tenure of incumbent Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED) Sanjay Kumar Mishra.
He was also part of the bench which upheld the power of States to sub-classify reserved category groups. In this case, Justice Kant too called for the identification of a creamy layer among these reserved categories, but said that the criteria for excluding creamy layer of SCs from the ambit of reservation could be different from that applicable to OBCs.