More Stories

Informist, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024

 

--President appoints Sanjiv Khanna as Chief Justice of India from Nov 11

 

NEW DELHI – President of India Droupadi Murmu on Thursday appointed Judge Sanjiv Khanna as the next Chief Justice of India with effect from Nov. 11. Justice Khanna will assume office as the 51st Chief Justice of India with a tenure of about six months ending May 13, 2025.

 

The transition follows the established convention wherein the outgoing Chief Justice nominates the second-most senior judge. Earlier, current Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had recommended the name of Justice Khanna to succeed him. 

 

Justice Khanna was enrolled as an advocate in 1983 and he practised in the fields of constitutional law, direct taxation, arbitration, commercial law, company law, land law, environmental law and medical negligence. Justice Khanna was elevated as an additional judge in the Delhi High Court in 2005 and was made a permanent judge in 2006.

 

Thereafter, he was elevated as a judge of the apex court in 2019. In the top court, he has passed some notable verdicts, including on Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, Electoral Bonds case, Electronic Voting Machine and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail case.

 

In 2019, Justice Khanna authored the majority opinion in the Constitution Bench case and held that the Right to Information Act was applicable to the Chief Justice of India. In a different case, Justice Khanna had dissented from 2 judges in 2021 and held that requisite process was not followed for the capital's Central Vista project. Further, Justice Khanna, writing for a Constitution Bench, ruled that irretrievable breakdown can be a ground for the apex court to dissolve a marriage under Article 142 of the Constitution.

 

In a concurring opinion that upheld the abrogation of Article 370, Justice Khanna said that he found Article 370 a feature of asymmetric federalism and not an indication of sovereignty, and its abrogation did not negate the federal structure. Declaring the government's electoral bond scheme unconstitutional, Justice Khanna observed that the right to privacy of donors does not arise if a donation was made through a banking channel. He said that the donor's identity is "asymmetrically known to the person and the officers of the bank from where the bond is purchased."

 

Further, rejecting a plea seeking 100% voter verifiable paper audit trail verification of votes cast on electronic voting machines, Justice Khanna said he wished to "put on record all safeguards adopted by the ECI (Election Commission of India) to ensure free and fair elections". Justice Khanna said that the current system ensures quick, error-free and mischief-free counting of votes.

 

He has also dealt with some politically sensitive cases. He had earlier rejected Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia's bail plea in the Delhi liquor policy case. However, he said that the trial of his case should be completed expeditiously. His bench gave bail to AAP's Sanjay Singh in the same case. Further, he also granted interim bail to AAP's Arvind Kejriwal initially for campaigning for General Elections and then after referring issues arising out of his money laundering case to a larger bench. 

 

Justice Khanna is the son of former Delhi High Court judge Dev Raj Khanna and nephew of late Justice H.R. Khanna, who was the lone dissenting voice in the famous ADM Jabalpur case where people were detained during Emergency under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971. While the majority had held that no person has any locus standi to move any writ petition under Article 226 before a high court for Habeas Corpus, Justice H.R. Khanna had dissented on it. Later, his junior colleague Justice M.H. Beg was appointed Chief Justice of India by the Indira Gandhi government in 1977. Thereafter, he had resigned in protest.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Vandana Hingorani

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2024. All rights reserved.