A portrait of Justice Hans Raj Khanna hangs in Court No. 2 of the Supreme Court—the same that Justice Jasti Chelameswar now occupies. In 1976, at the height of Emergency imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, the legendary Justice Khanna was the sole dissenting voice on a five-member bench as he went against her in a case involving civil liberties. “What is at stake is the rule of law,” he had observed. “The question is whether the law speaking through the authority of the court shall be absolutely silenced and rendered mute.” This is believed to have cost him his promotion to Court No. 1, that of the Chief Justice of India.