November 11 is a poignant moment in the history of the Indian Supreme Court. A moment in Sanjiv Khanna, the nephew of a man who sacrificed his Chief Justiceship by dissenting against the Indira Gandhi government, has been designated the Chief Justice of India.
Khanna’s uncle, Justice Hans Raj Khanna, had in 1977 defied the government to uphold the right of personal liberty and rule of law. He stood out as a shining example of dissent in what is called the darkest days of the Indian judiciary.
Now, 47 years later, Justice Sanjiv Khanna has become the most powerful judge of the world’s largest democracy at a time when the right to personal liberty, increased use of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the use of central agencies like the CBI and ED against political opponents are at the forefront of legal discourse in the country.
Justice Khanna took over from D Y Chandrachud at the Supreme Court as the 51st Chief Justice of India for a six-month tenure.
Justice Khanna has been on the benches that decided some of the nation’s most hotly contests cases. He ruled on matters like the Ayodhya dispute, the Sabarimala temple entry controversy, the ‘right to privacy’ case, electoral bonds scheme and abortion rights, among others.
Khanna’s decision in the 2019 Right to Information Act case is considered his most influential to date. In his judgement, he said that while there was a need to balance transparency with a judge’s right to privacy, the Office of the Chief Justice of India (OCJ) could be subject to RTI requests.
In the electoral bonds case, Khanna delivered a concurring opinion to the majority. He was among the only judges to highlight how the scheme was an infringement on the voters’ right to information. He also rejected the government’s argument for donor’s privacy, saying that bank officers who handled the bonds knew the identities.
In 2023, Khanna authored the majority opinion in the Shilpa Sailesh vs Varun Sreenivasan case that dealt with the SC’s authority to grant divorces under Article 142. The Court could dissolve marriages on grounds of irretrievable breakdown to ensure "complete justice" for both parties, he said. This is seen as a massive advancement of Indian divorce law.
Though he is about to take office, Khanna’s judgeship was a matter of contention at the time of his appointment. He had a rank of 33 in seniority of High Court Judges across India. When the Collegium put his name forward, the then-Delhi High Court Chief Justice Kailash Gambhir wrote in a letter to the President saying he found the decision to elevate Justice Khanna overlooking 32 other senior judges senior “earth-shattering”.
He’s known in the Bar as a strict but quiet judge—a man who does not like the limelight and who hardly ever speaks to the press. Given that he is taking charge at a time the SC is dealing with cases such as the one against Google, which has ramifications for society at large, and the marital rape cases, his half-year as top judge is bound to be a closely watched one.
