Despite Public Appeal for Transparency, Government Confirms Justice Surya Kant as Next Chief Justice of India

Despite Public Appeal for Transparency, Government Confirms Justice Surya Kant as Next Chief Justice of India

President signs warrant of appointment even as uninvestigated complaints and ethical concerns remain unaddressed.

By Rakesh Raman
New Delhi | October 31, 2025

The Government of India has formally announced the appointment of Justice Surya Kant as the next Chief Justice of India (CJI), effective November 24, 2025, despite multiple unresolved allegations and a public appeal urging an independent and transparent review before his elevation.

According to a Press Communiqué issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice on October 30, 2025, the President of India has signed the warrant of appointment under the powers conferred by the Constitution. The notification states that “Shri Justice Surya Kant, Judge of the Supreme Court, is appointed as the Chief Justice of India with effect from November 24, 2025.”

The announcement comes just four days after an extensive appeal was sent to President Droupadi Murmu by journalist and social activist Rakesh Raman, who had urged that Justice Kant’s appointment be deferred until a public, U.S.–style confirmation hearing and independent vetting could be conducted.

[ 🔊 मुख्य न्यायाधीश की नियुक्ति पर पारदर्शी अपील: ऑडियो विश्लेषण ]

Findings Highlighted in the Appeal

The appeal — supported by evidence cited in the India Judicial Research Report 2025 (IJRR 2025) — detailed long-pending complaints and allegations against Justice Surya Kant, including:

• 2012 Complaint by Satish Kumar Jain: allegations of undervalued property transactions, benami holdings, and tax evasion totaling several crores.
• 2017 Complaint by prisoner Surjit Singh: claims of bribes for bail orders in multiple NDPS cases.
• 2017 Judicial note by Justice A.K. Goel: references to corruption and casteism in judicial appointments linked to Justice Kant’s tenure on the Punjab & Haryana High Court bench.

None of these complaints has been subjected to an independent or public inquiry. The appeal warned that elevating a judge under such a cloud would “erode the ethical legitimacy of India’s judiciary and destroy public confidence in judicial independence.”

Ignored Call for Public Vetting

In his October 26 letter, Rakesh Raman proposed that Justice Kant and all future CJIs face a live-streamed confirmation hearing before an independent vetting commission comprising retired judges, senior advocates, journalists, and civil-society representatives. He also recommended the use of AI-based audits to analyze judicial consistency and bias.

The appeal — archived on Zenodo for permanent public record under DOI 10.5281/zenodo.17452835 — received acknowledgment on October 27, 2025 from the President’s Office, which had forwarded it to the Department of Justice for consideration.

However, with this notification, the government has chosen to proceed without any form of public scrutiny, effectively disregarding the citizen demand for accountability.

Judicial Accountability Crisis

This decision, observers say, exemplifies the systemic opacity that IJRR 2025 has documented — where judges accused of misconduct are promoted without inquiry, while whistle-blowers and reform advocates face institutional hostility.

Rakesh Raman commented that this appointment “confirms the judiciary’s resistance to ethical transparency and reveals that both the executive and judicial arms are complicit in maintaining secrecy rather than pursuing reform.”

About the Research

The India Judicial Research Report 2025 — available on Zenodo and Academia.edu — provides detailed analyses of corruption, case pendency, and technology failures in Indian courts. It includes 20 actionable recommendations for judicial reform and a full section on Judicial Appointments and the Surya Kant Precedent.

Zenodo is a globally recognized research repository developed by the European OpenAIRE initiative and managed by CERN.

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Key Links

🔗 Full Appeal on Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17452835
🔗 India Judicial Research Report 2025 on Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17324442

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.

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