Meet Justice Sanjiv Khanna who is next in line to replace DY Chandrachud as Chief Justice of India

New Delhi: Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who never headed a high court as Chief Justice and served as a judge of the Delhi High Court before his elevation to the Supreme Court. As per the seniority rule of Supreme Court judges, Justice Sanjiv Khanna is next in line to become the next Chief Justice of India (CJI) for a seven-month term in November 2024. Elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on 18 January 2019, he is due to retire on 13 May 2025.

Justice Khanna: Early Life

Born on 14 May 1960, Justice Sanjiv Khanna completed his schooling from the prestigious Modern School in Delhi. He studied law at Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi. After graduation, he enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Delhi in 1983.

career as a lawyer

After his nomination, Justice Khana started practicing taxation, arbitration, commercial law, environmental law, medical negligence law and company law in the Delhi High Court. He also served the Government of Delhi as an Additional Public Prosecutor in criminal law matters. Justice Khanna was also the Senior Standing Counsel of the Income Tax Department of Delhi for about seven years. In 2004, he was appointed as Delhi’s standing counsel for civil law matters in the Delhi High Court.

Promotion as a Judge

Justice Khanna was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Delhi High Court on June 24, 2005 and later as a permanent Judge on February 20, 2006. In the Delhi High Court, Justice Khanna was associated with Delhi Judicial Academy, Delhi International Arbitration Centre. and District Court Mediation Center. He was elevated to the Supreme Court on January 18, 2019. If the seniority rule is followed, he would likely be the 51st CJI of India and would assume office in November 2024.

remarkable decision

Shilpa Sailesh vs Varun Srinivasan Case: In this case, Justice Khanna held that the Supreme Court has the power to grant divorce directly under Article 142 of the Constitution. Justice Khanna said the apex court can grant divorce on the ground of ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’ to deliver ‘complete justice’.

Revised Fee Scale for Arbitral Matters: In this case, Justice Khanna wrote a dissenting note on the limited point that in the absence of an arbitration agreement, the arbitral tribunal is entitled to fix a reasonable fee.

Justice Khanna also wrote the majority opinion in the CPIO, Supreme Court v. Subhash Chandra Agrawal judgment, better known as the RTI judgment. The 5-judge bench had to decide whether subjecting the Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ) to RTI requests undermines the independence of the judiciary. Justice Khanna wrote that judicial independence does not necessarily contradict the right to information. Whether or not the OCJ should entertain RTI requests should be decided on a case-by-case basis. The 5-judge bench concluded that the chief public information officer of the court should decide whether the disclosure is in the larger public interest, weighed against the judges’ right to privacy. While in the Supreme Court, Khanna J has authored 65 judgments, which is about 26.6% of the 275 benches he has been a part of.

SC Collegium

The apex court has a sanctioned strength of 34 judges, including the CJI, and with the retirement of Justice S Abdul Nazeer on January 4, the number will again go up to 27. Currently, nine of the 28 judges have been appointed. Sources said the composition of the collegium, which usually comprises the CJI and the four senior-most judges who decide the appointment of judges to the apex court, has changed and now has six members with the entry of Justice Sanjiv. Food.

The change in the collegium is due to the fact that after the CJI, none of the four senior-most judges of the apex court — Justices SK Kaul, S Abdul Nazeer, KM Joseph and MR Shah — will head the judiciary. The convention is that apart from the CJI, the collegium consists of at least one future CJI, which makes recommendations to the central government for appointment of judges to the apex court.

Recently, the collegium system has become a major flashpoint between the Supreme Court and the central government, with the mechanism for appointment of judges by judges facing criticism from various quarters.