Chief Justice of India Surya Kant once described India’s post-independence journey as the uncertain steps of a young nation evolving into the confident stride of a “force of consequence”. The characterisation mirrors his own personal odyssey from the winding lanes of Petwar village in Haryana to the pinnacle of the Indian judiciary.
The audience in the chandeliered Ganatantra Mandap at Rashtrapati Bhavan, where he took the oath of office in Hindi on November 24, reflected a microcosm of his journey. Village elders, teachers, family and friends from Hisar, where he started his professional career and somewhere along the way lost his caste name ‘Sharma’, sat with foreign judges and high dignitaries.
