Justice Sanjiv Khanna will become the 51st Chief Justice of India after the retirement of CJI DY Chandrachud. After the retirement of CJI Chandrachud, Justice Khanna will take oath as CJI tomorrow on 11 November.
Justice Hansraj sidelined by Indira, Sanjeev inherited advocacy
Sanjeev Khanna's legacy has been one of advocacy. His father Devraj Khanna has been a High Court judge. Whereas uncle Hansraj Khanna was a famous judge of the Supreme Court. He had opposed the Indira government's decision to impose emergency and jail political opponents without trial.
In 1977, it was considered certain that he would become the Chief Justice on the basis of seniority, but Justice MH Baig was made the CJI. In protest against this he resigned from the Supreme Court. After the fall of Indira's government, he also became the Law Minister for 3 days in the government of Chaudhary Charan Singh.
Justice Hansraj Khanna was a judge of the Supreme Court from 1971 to 1977.
Sanjeev Khanna was influenced by his uncle, so he did LLB from Delhi University's Campus Law Center in 1983. Initially, Justice Khanna started practicing law from Tis Hazari Court of Delhi. After that, he was the Standing Counsel for Income Tax Department and Civil Matters of Delhi Government. Standing Counsel in common language means government lawyer. In the year 2005, Justice Khanna became the judge of Delhi High Court. After being a judge of Delhi High Court for 13 years, Justice Khanna was promoted as judge of the Supreme Court in 2019.
Sanjeev Khanna's promotion from High Court judge to Supreme Court judge was also controversial. In 2019, when CJI Ranjan Gogoi recommended his name, Khanna was ranked 33rd in the seniority ranking of judges. Gogoi promoted him as more capable for the Supreme Court.
Delhi High Court Chief Justice Kailash Gambhir also wrote a letter to the then President Ramnath Kovind against his appointment. Kailash had written-
Ignoring the 32 judges would be a historical mistake.
Justice Khanna had kept himself away from hearing the petition related to the same sex marriage case. He had given personal reasons behind this. In July 2024, a bench of 4 judges was formed to hear the review petition on the gay marriage case, Justice Khanna was also included in it. Before the hearing, Justice Khanna said that he should be exempted from this case. In legal language this is called recusing oneself from the case. Due to Justice Khanna's separation, the hearing had to be postponed till the formation of the next bench.
Major decisions of Justice Khanna like Article 370, Electoral Bond
In his 6-year Supreme Court career, Justice Khanna has been a part of 450 judgment benches. He himself wrote 115 judgments. In July this year, the bench of Justice Khanna and Justice Dipankar Dutta had granted bail to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. In the decision related to AMU on November 8, Justice Khanna has supported giving minority status to the university.
Arrangement of collegium to become CJI of Supreme Court
There is a fixed process to select judges of the High Court and the Supreme Court, which is called the Supreme Court Collegium. The most senior judges of the Supreme Court are included in it. The Center accepts its recommendations and appoints the new CJI and other judges.
According to tradition, the most senior judge on the basis of experience in the Supreme Court becomes the Chief Justice. This process takes place under a memorandum, which is called MoP i.e. 'Memorandum of Procedure for the Appointment of Supreme Court Judges'.
MoP was prepared for the first time in the year 1999. This document decides the responsibilities of the Centre, Supreme Court and High Court in the process of appointment of judges. There is no requirement or law made in the Constitution regarding the system of MoP and Collegium, but judges have been appointed under the same. However, even before the MoP was prepared in 1999, there was a tradition of elevating the most senior judge after the CJI to become the CJI.
In the year 2015, an amendment to the Constitution created the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), this was to increase the role of the Center in the appointment of judges, but the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional. After this, talks continued on MoP. Last year also the Central Government had said that the MoP is yet to be finalized.
The tradition of making the most senior judge as CJI has been broken twice so far.
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on two occasions, went against the tradition and appointed other judges instead of the most senior judge as CJI. In 1973, Indira made Justice AN Ray the CJI, while three judges senior to her – JM Shelat, KS Hegde and AN Grover were sidelined.
Justice Ray was considered the judge of choice of Indira government. Justice Ray was made CJI just a day after the order in the Kesavananda Bharti case. The decision was given by a bench of 13 judges with a majority of 7:6, Justice Ray was among the minority judges.
In January 1977, Indira once again broke tradition. He made Justice MH Baig the CJI in place of senior most judge Hansraj Khanna.
Justice Khanna will hear 5 big cases in a short tenure
The tenure of former CJI Chandrachud was about 2 years. In comparison, CJI Sanjeev Khanna's tenure will be short. Justice Khanna will remain in office as Chief Justice for only 6 months. He is to retire on 13 May 2025.
During this tenure, Justice Khanna has to hear many big cases like marital rape case, appointment process of Election Commission members, validity of Bihar caste population, review of Sabarimala case, constitutionality of sedition.
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