President Draupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Justice Sanjiv Khanna as the Chief Justice.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna has become the 51st Chief Justice of the country. President Draupadi Murmu administered the oath to him at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud retired on 10 November.
It may be mentioned that the tenure of Justice Khanna will be only for 6 months. Justice Khanna, 64, will retire on May 13, 2025. As a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Khanna has written 65 judgments. He has been involved in around 275 bench appearances during this period.
Justice Sanjeev's uncle Justice Hansraj Khanna was also a judge in the Supreme Court. However, despite being senior, he was not made Chief Justice due to the opposition of Indira government's Emergency.
Justice MH Baig was made CJI in his place. In opposition to this, Justice Hansraj had resigned from the post of judge of the Supreme Court.
Father was a judge of the Delhi High Court and uncle was a judge of the Supreme Court
Sanjeev Khanna's legacy has been that of a lawyer. His father Devraj Khanna has been a judge of the Delhi High Court. While uncle Hansraj Khanna was a well-known Supreme Court judge. He opposed the imposition of emergency by the Indira government. He also expressed displeasure at the jailing of political opponents without trial.
Justice Hansraj Khanna was a judge of the Supreme Court from 1971 to 1977.
In 1977, it was supposed that he would become the Chief Justice on the basis of seniority, but Justice MH Baig was made the CJI. In protest against which he resigned from the Supreme Court. After the departure of Indira's government, he also became the Law Minister for 3 days in Chaudhary Charan Singh's government.
Influenced by his uncle, Justice Sanjeev chose advocacy as his career
Justice Sanjeev was influenced by his uncle, so he studied LLB in 1983 from the Campus Law Center of Delhi University. Started practicing law from Tis Hazari Court, Delhi. After that he was also Standing Counsel for Income Tax Department and Civil Affairs of Delhi Government. In common parlance, Standing Counsel means Government Advocate.
In 2005, Justice Khanna became a judge of the Delhi High Court. Where he held this position for 13 years. In 2019, Justice Khanna was promoted and made a judge of the Supreme Court. However, his promotion was also controversial.
In fact, in 2019, when CJI Ranjan Gogoi recommended his name, Justice Khanna was 33rd in seniority. Justice Gogoi promoted him considering him more capable for the Supreme Court.
Delhi High Court Chief Justice Kailash Gambhir also wrote a letter to the then President Ram Nath Kovind against his appointment. Justice Kailash wrote – Ignoring the 32 judges would be a historic mistake.
Despite this opposition, President Kovind appointed Justice Khanna as a Justice in the Supreme Court. Sanjeev assumed office on 18 January 2019.
Justice Khanna's major judgments like Article 370, Election bond
In his 6-year career in the Supreme Court, Justice Khanna has been part of 450 benches. He himself wrote 115 judgments. In July this year, a bench of Justice Khanna and Justice Dipankar Dutta granted bail to former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Justice Khanna in the decision regarding AMU on November 8 has upheld the minority status of the university.
recused himself from the same-sex marriage case
Justice Khanna recused himself from hearing a petition related to same-sex marriage. He gave personal reasons behind this. In July 2024, a 4-judge bench, including Justice Khanna, was constituted to hear a review petition on the same-sex marriage case. Before the hearing, Justice Khanna asked that he be discharged from the case.
In legal parlance this is called getting rid of the case. Due to Justice Khanna's defection, the hearing had to be adjourned till the constitution of the next bench.
Collegium arrangement to become CJI of Supreme Court
There is a fixed procedure for the selection of High Court and Supreme Court judges, called the Supreme Court Collegium. It includes the most senior judges of the Supreme Court. The Center accepts its recommendations and appoints a new CJI and other judges.
According to tradition, the most senior judge in the Supreme Court, based on experience, becomes the Chief Justice. This process is done under a memorandum called MoP which stands for 'Memorandum of Procedure for the Appointment of Supreme Court Judges'.
MoP was prepared for the first time in the year 1999. This document lays down the responsibilities of the Centre, the Supreme Court and the High Court in the process of appointment of judges. No requirement or law has been made in the Constitution regarding MoP and collegium arrangement, but judges have been appointed under this. However, even before the MoP was drafted in 1999, there has been a tradition of making the CJI the senior most judge after the CJI.
In 2015, a constitutional amendment created the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) to enhance the Centre's role in the appointment of judges, but the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional. After this, the talks continued on the MoP. Last year too, the central government had said that the MoP has not yet been finalised.
The tradition of making the senior-most judge the CJI has been broken twice so far
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi went against tradition on two occasions and appointed another judge as CJI instead of the most senior judge. In 1973, Indira made Justice AN Ray the CJI, while three judges senior to him – JM Shelat, K.S. Hegde and AN Grover were excluded.
Justice Ray was considered to be the judge of choice of the Indira government. Justice Ray was made CJI a day after the order in the Kesavanand Bharti case. A 13-judge bench delivered the verdict by a majority of 7:6, with Justice Ray in the minority.
In January 1977, Indira once again broke with tradition. He appointed Justice MH Baig as the CJI in place of the senior-most judge, Justice Hansraj Khanna.
Justice Khanna will hear 5 major cases in a short tenure
Former CJI Chandrachud's tenure was about 2 years. In comparison, CJI Sanjeev Khanna's tenure will be short. Justice Khanna will hold the post of Chief Justice for only 6 months. He is scheduled to retire on 13 May 2025.
During this tenure, Justice Khanna is expected to hear several major cases like marital rape case, appointment process of Election Commission members, recognition of tribal population in Bihar, review of Sabarimala case, constitutionality of sedition.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
