Supreme Court Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna (File)
– Photo: ANI / Supreme Court Website
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Justice Sanjiv Khanna on Monday became the 51st Chief Justice of the country. President Draupadi Murmu administered him the oath of office and secrecy at Rashtrapati Bhavan at 10 am. Justice Khanna replaced Justice DY Chandrachud, who retired on Sunday. Justice Khanna’s tenure will be till May 13, 2025. Justice Khanna has been part of historic decisions like ending the electoral bond scheme and abrogation of Article 370. As CJI, his priority will be to reduce the number of pending cases and speed up justice.
Justice Khanna will hold the chair of Chief Justice for six months
Justice Sanjeev Khanna, who belongs to a prestigious family of Delhi, is a third generation lawyer. Before becoming a judge, he started his law practice in Tis Hazari Court in 1983. He also practiced law in Delhi High Court and will now hold the chair of the Chief Justice of the country for the next six months.
Know about Justice Sanjeev Khanna
Justice Khanna was born on 14 May 1960 in Delhi and studied law from DU’s Campus Law Centre. He was appointed as Standing Counsel (Civil) of the National Capital Territory of Delhi in 2004 and became an ad hoc judge of the Delhi High Court in 2005. Later he was appointed permanent judge. He also argued several criminal cases in the Delhi High Court as Additional Public Prosecutor and Amicus Curiae. His tenure as Senior Standing Counsel of the Income Tax Department was also long. As CJI, his priority is to reduce the number of pending cases and speed up the delivery of justice. He is the son of Justice Devaraj Khanna, a senior judge of the Delhi High Court, and nephew of the renowned former Supreme Court judge Justice HR Khanna. His uncle Justice HR Khanna was in the news during the Emergency in 1976 when he resigned after writing a dissenting judgment in the ADM Jabalpur case.
Got promoted to Supreme Court in 2019
Justice Khanna was elevated to the Supreme Court on January 18, 2019, on the recommendation of the collegium. After coming to the Supreme Court, he was the Chairman of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee from 17 June 2023 to 25 December 2023. Presently he is the Executive Chairman of National Legal Service Authority and Governing Council Member of National Judicial Academy, Bhopal. He will retire on May 13 next year.
Many important decisions were given from EVM to interim bail to Kejriwal.
- As a judge of the Supreme Court, he was a part of many historic decisions. On April 26, a bench headed by Justice Khanna termed the suspicion of EVM manipulation as baseless and rejected the demand to revert to the old paper ballot system.
- Justice Khanna was part of a five-judge bench that upheld the Centre’s 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution. Justice Khanna’s bench was the first to grant interim bail to the then Chief Minister Kejriwal till June 1 to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections in the excise policy scam cases.
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