I have no special preference, affection, or bias for either Justice Pardiwala or Justice Dipankar Datta. However, there are a few interesting facts regarding their judicial trajectories.

Justice Dipankar Datta was born on February 9, 1965. He was appointed as a judge of the Calcutta High Court on June 22, 2006, at the young age of 41. He is the brother-in-law of former Supreme Court judge Justice Amitava Roy—a familial connection that may have contributed to his early elevation to the Bench. Justice Datta later served as the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court before being elevated to the Supreme Court of India.

Justice J. B. Pardiwala was born on August 12, 1965. He was elevated as a judge of the Gujarat High Court on February 17, 2011—nearly five years after Justice Datta’s elevation to the High Court Bench.

Justice Pardiwala is a fourth-generation lawyer who was elevated directly to the Supreme Court on May 9, 2022, without having served as a High Court Chief Justice.

Although Justice Datta was senior to Justice Pardiwala by nearly five years in terms of High Court service, Justice Pardiwala was elevated to the Supreme Court earlier, on May 9, 2022, whereas Justice Datta was elevated on December 12, 2022.

Justice Datta will retire on February 8, 2030, as a senior judge of the Supreme Court. In contrast, Justice Pardiwala is set to become the Chief Justice of India in May 2028 and will serve until his retirement on August 11, 2030—giving him a tenure of over two years and three months as CJI, making it one of the longer tenures in recent judicial history.

Whoever becomes the Chief Justice of India, the citizens of this country have no role in that process. That is unfortunate and shall change.