India, May 14 -- The elevation of Justice Bhushan Ramakrishna Gavai as the 52nd Chief Justice of India (CJI) offers a moment of reflection on the journey of the judiciary in independent India, especially on questions of equity, diversity and representation. Justice Gavai, who charted an extraordinary journey from Amravati in Maharashtra to the hallowed halls of the apex court, is only the second CJI from the Scheduled Castes (SC) community. But his six-month tenure - he is scheduled to demit office on November 23 - also underlines some structural gaps in the judiciary.

An ongoing series in this newspaper based on an internal database of all CJIs and 279 apex court judges shows that two in three Supreme Court judges have a judicial backgr...