On Monday (11th November), Supreme Court judge Sanjiv Khanna was sworn in as the 51st Chief Justice of India (CJI). He succeeds the retired CJI DY Chandrachud, the erstwhile left-liberal hero now villainised by the same ecosystem in India.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna is the nephew of former Supreme Court Judge Hans Raj Khanna, who infamously took on Indira Gandhi’s government in 1976. In a dissenting judgment, he ruled that the right to life and personal liberty could not be suspended, even during an Emergency.
This cost Justice Hans Raj Khanna his appointment as CJI. Indira Gandhi broke the convention of appointing the seniormost judge as the Chief Justice of India, promoting Justice Hans Raj Khanna to resign.
Inspired by his uncle, Justice Sanjiv Khanna enrolled at the Bar Council of Delhi in 1983 and was appointed to the Delhi High Court as an Additional Judge in 2005.
Justice Khanna was thereafter elevated to the Supreme Court in January 2019. He is set to serve in the capacity of Chief Justice of India for a brief period of 6 months until 13th May 2025.
Key Judgments as Supreme Court Judge
The newly appointed CJI was a part of the 7-Judge Bench that overruled the 1967 Azeez Basha case, which denied minority status to Aligarh Muslim University.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna and three other judges directed that the status of AMU be freshly determined based on the tests laid down in that particular case (Aligarh Muslim University Through its Registrar Faizan Mustafa v Naresh Agarwal).
In April 2024, he along with Justice Dipankar Dutta shot down [pdf] a petition filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), seeking 100% VVPAT verification of votes cast on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
He noted that bank officials are aware of the identities of the donors who purchased the bonds. Justice Khanna was previously part of the 2019 Bench that increased the number of booths, which undergo VVPAT physical verification, from 1 to 5 per Assembly Segment.
In February this year, Justice Khanna was part of a 5-judge bench that dubbed the electoral bond scheme ‘unconstitutional.’ Justice Khanna in a concurring judgment dismissed the argument that donor privacy applied to donations made through banks.
He was part of the 5-Judge Bench that unanimously upheld the constitutionality of abrogation of Article 370. In a concurring judgment, Justice Khanna stated that the removal of Article 370 did not undermine India’s federal structure.
In 2019, Justice Khanna did not interfere with the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI), which stalled the release of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biopic amid the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
He was also part of the Bench which rejected the Centre’s petition to increase the compensation given to victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy. The apex court contended that the settlement could be set aside only on grounds of ‘fraud’, which was not pleaded by the Centre.
He along with 4 other Judges also upheld that the Supreme Court has the authority to grant divorce to couples using its discretionary powers under Article 142 of the Indian Constitution without the need to approach lower courts. (Shilpa Sailesh v Varun Sreenivasan)
In 2018, Justice Khanna also ruled in favour of the decriminalisation of adultery in Joseph Shine v Union of India.
Key cases where the decision is pending
He is also part of the 2-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court, deciding the constitutionality of the Triple Talaq law enacted by the Modi government.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna is also hearing the case (Youth For Equality v State Of Bihar) to determine the validity of the caste-based survey carried out by the JDU-RJD government in 2023.
He is also part of a Bench tasked to decide the validity of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioner Act enacted by the Modi government. The law removed the CJI from the 3-panel committee meant to choose the Chief Election Commissioner.
Justice Khana is also heading a Bench on a case (Durga Dutt v Union of India) seeking to make Fundamental Duties, which was introduced by the Indira Gandhi govt in 1976, enforceable in India.
He along with two other Judges will also assess the 2006 Nagaraj judgment, which validated reservation in promotions. The newly appointed CJI will also hear the 2023 case, concerning the ban on BBC’s propaganda documentary against PM Modi.
Justice Khanna is also part of a 2-Judge Bench, which will decide if certain provisions of The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act of 2004 and The National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992 are constitutionally valid.
He will further decide whether minority status should be given based on State population or nationwide population.
Conclusion
Justice Sanjiv Khanna has ruled in favour of the Modi government over the abrogation of Article 370 and against it in the electoral bond case.
He has drawn the praise of the left-liberal lobby for decriminalising adultery, declaring electoral bonds invalid, and not interfering with the decision of the Election Commission of India to stall the release of PM Modi’s biopic.
The newly appointed CJI was hailed by the same ecosystem for paving the path for Aligarh Muslim University to attain minority status.
He had occasionally drawn ire from the coterie over holding abrogation of Article 370 constitutional and not entertaining their demand of a 100% EVM-VVPAT match.
As mentioned above, Justice Khanna is part of several Benches which are yet to decide key constitutional matters such as the validity of the Triple Talaq law, Bihar caste census, and legislation pertaining to the appointment of Election Commissioners.
If the incumbent CJI finds merits in the arguments presented by the government and rules in its favour, Justice Sanjiv Khanna will be equally demonised by the left-liberal ecosystem as it did with his predecessor Justice (retd.) DY Chandrachud.
The cabal spares none unless they give favourable verdicts in all cases. They demand a judiciary committed to their ideals like the one once espoused by Indira Gandhi.
