Justice Sanjiv Khanna sworn in as 51st Chief Justice of India
NEW DELHI, NOV 11: Justice Sanjiv Khanna on Monday was sworn in as the 51st Chief Justice Of India (CJI).
President of India Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to Justice Khanna at a swearing-in ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He will have a little more than six months term till May 13, 2025.
Justice Khanna had been part of several landmark judgements of the Supreme Court including scrapping the electoral bonds scheme, upholding abrogation of Article 370.
Justice Khanna succeeded Justice Chandrachud, who retired on Sunday after working for exactly two years. The CJI Chandrachud on October 17 had recommended to the Centre and named the senior-most Supreme Court Judge as the next CJI.
Justice Khanna, was enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Delhi in 1983, he began his practice in the District Courts at Delhi. After a while, he regularly appeared in the High Court and tribunals in fields as diverse as constitutional law, direct taxes, arbitration and commercial matters, company law, land laws, environment and pollution laws and medical negligence.
He had also argued a number of criminal cases in the Delhi High Court as an Additional Public Prosecutor, and on appointment by the Court as an amicus curiae. He had a long tenure of about seven years as the Senior Standing Counsel for the Income Tax Department in the Delhi High Court. In 2004, he was appointed as the Standing Counsel (Civil) for the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
Elevated as an additional judge of the Delhi High Court in 2005, he was made a permanent judge in 2006. While a judge of the Delhi High Court, he at different times was actively associated and involved with the Delhi Judicial Academy, the Delhi International Arbitration Centre and the district court mediation centres.
Justice Khanna, who had led the bench of the top court in many cases, had delivered various judgements, including that of granting interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal. The verdict was very much appreciated by lawyer fraternity and litigants for his reasoning order.
A lawyer, who did not want to be quoted in the story, told this newspaper that, “He is a very reasoned man. I know him, even before he became a judge in the Delhi High Court in 2005. I have seen his number of order and judgments. All these are quite well reasoned and with logical observations.”
Justice Khanna was born on May 14, 1960. He studied law at the Campus Law Centre, Delhi University. After graduating, he enrolled as an advocate in the Bar Council of Delhi in 1983.
Justice Khanna practised taxation, arbitration, commercial law, environmental law, medical negligence law and company law in the Delhi High Court.
He represented the Delhi Government as an Additional Public Prosecutor in criminal law matters. He was also a Senior Standing Counsel for the Income Tax Department of Delhi for about seven years. In 2004, he was appointed as Delhi’s Standing Counsel for civil law matters at the Delhi High Court.
On 25 June 2005, he was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Delhi High Court and became a permanent judge on February 20, 2006.
On 18 January 2019, Justice Khanna was elevated to the Supreme Court on the recommendation of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi-led collegium. He was appointed by President Ramnath Kovind.
Justice Khanna has authored 117 judgements and has been a part of 456 Benches so far. He mainly authored judgements in Criminal Matters. Apart from that, he has authored several judgements in Civil, Constitution and Arbitration matters.
His notable judgements included Association for Democratic Reforms v Election Commission of India (2024). He rejected ADR’s plea seeking 100 percent VVPAT verification of votes cast on Electronic Voting Machines. He wrote that he wished to put on record all safeguards adopted by the ECI to ensure free and fair elections.
In 2024, a five-judge Bench declared the Electoral Bond Scheme unconstitutional. Justice Khanna wrote a concurring opinion stating that the right to privacy of donors does not arise if a donation is made through a banking channel. Their identity is “asymmetrically known to the person and the officers of the bank from where the Bond is purchased”. He also held that retribution, victimisation, and retaliation against donors are wrongs but they cannot be a justification for the scheme which violates voters’ collective right to information.
In 2023, Justice Khanna delivered a concurring opinion in a five-judge Bench decision that upheld the validity of the abrogation of Article 370. He found that Article 370 of the Constitution of India was a feature of asymmetric federalism and not and indication of sovereignty, and that its abrogation does not negate the federal structure.
On October 24, this year, the Union Government notified the appointment of Justice Khanna as the next CJI.
-PTI
