New Delhi, Tuesday: Justice Sanjiv Khanna was sworn in as the 51st Chief Justice of India today at Rashtrapati Bhawan by his predecessor, Justice D Y Chandrachud.
He never enjoyed headlines but in this case it is known that he was associated with efforts in the direction of judicial pendency reduction; on issues when he felt that judges must experience the reality that they live in an age of social media.
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Justice Khanna has been elevated on January 18, 2019 as a Supreme Court judge and will superannuate on May 13, 2025 after tenure of a little over six months. One of the few judges lifted to the Supreme Court even before they have become Chief Justice of any High Court is Justice Sanjiv Khanna. He was a proauthor of the year 1983, Bar Council of Delhi. A huge practice of the major part was done within the Tis Hazari complex of district courts and further in the High Court of Delhi as well as in various tribunals. He remained the standing counsel of the Income Tax Department for over two decades. Since 2004, he has been standing counsel (Civil) for the National Capital Territory of Delhi. In addition, he had experience in some criminal matters before the Delhi High Court as an additional public prosecutor as well as amicus curiae for the State. He was elected to become an Additional Judge of Delhi High Court in the year 2005. He has been promoted as Permanent Judge in the year 2006. Since, he is serving as the judge in Delhi High Court, he has been holding the positions of chairman/judge-incharge of Delhi Judicial Academy, Delhi International Arbitration Centre and the District Court Mediation Centres.
He is appointed Chairman, Supreme Court Legal Service Committee from 17 June to December 25, 2023 and acting executive chairman, National Legal Services Authority. He is also the member of the Governing Council of National Judicial Academy, Bhopal. In the court is Justice Khanna’s nephew V Mahpera, lucky fellow that he has had an experience of being nephew to former apex court judge Justice H R Khanna, one of those who enunciated the landmark Basic Structure Doctrine through the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case.
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He was associated with some landmark judgments pronounced by him during his tenures as a judge at the country’s highest court. But, however much settled the proposition may be that the right of speech under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution of India cannot be invoked for frustrating the fundamental right secured under Article 21, if the person seeks a right of speech, the other right is to listen or not to listen. He was sitting in a bench dealing with the issue pertaining to remarks by a stenographer over a telecast while he declined the writ petitioner’s plea for quashing the FIR .
He is one of the three-member benches agreeing to admit this set of petitions against the green clearances given for the redevelopment project at Central Vista as also Justice Khanna who in this very matter, dissented in the judgement. Among them are some of the most significant Constitution Bench judgments, sanctioning the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and quashing the electoral bonds scheme of 2018 amongst others. He is an Associate Member of the Court.