Justice Sanjiv Khanna was sworn in as the 51st Chief Justice of India at the Rashtrapati Bhawan today by the President of India Droupadi Murmu. He succeeds Justice DY Chandrachud whose tenure ended on Friday.
Justice Chandrachud in his farewell speech said he has confidence in Justice Khanna’s future leadership. He also highlighted his successor’s dignified, stable and deep commitment to justice. The former CJI had recommended Justice Khanna’s name as his next-in-line on October 17. Khanna was officially notified on October 24.
Khanna, who has been part of several landmark Supreme Court judgments including the abrogation of Article 370 and scrapping of Electoral Bonds Scheme, will have a seven-month term till May 2025. From being a Judge in the Delhi High Court, he was elevated to the Supreme Court in January 2019.
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Who is Justice Sanjiv Khanna?
Justice Sanjiv Khanna, 64, is a well-known figure in India’s judiciary. He began his career as an advocate with the Delhi Bar Council in 1983 and quickly climbed the ranks with his ambition and dedication. Khanna emerged as a prominent expert in a wide range of legal fields – taxation, arbitration, constitutional law, commercial law, and environmental law.
He hails from a family of lawyers. Justice Khanna’s grandfather was a celebrated lawyer of his time and was included in the Congress committee formed for the Jallianwala Bagh incident – in 1919. His father was Justice Dev Raj Khanna who served as a judge at the Delhi High Court, and his uncle Justice HR Khanna was a Supreme Court Judge. Justice Khanna is also the nephew of former Supreme Court judge Hans Raj Khanna who was part of the ADM Jabalpur case.
Some of the landmark cases that the newly-sworn CJI has been part of are granting bail to former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection to the money laundering and Delhi excise policy scam, he questioned Mumbai college’s ban on students wearing burqa, and the Central Vista Project.
