President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of the office of the 51st Chief Justice of India (CJI) to Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjiv Khanna on November 11, 2024.
Key points
- Justice Khanna succeeds Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, who retired on November 10, 2024, and his term will last until May 13, 2025.
- Justice Sanjiv Khanna’ uncle, the legendary Justice H.R. Khanna’s championing of personal liberty during the dark days of Emergency in 1977 cost him his Chief Justiceship of India.
- Justice HR Khanna resigned as a Supreme Court judge after Indira Gandhi overlooked him and appointed a junior judge as the Chief Justice of India (CJI).
- In January 1977, Justice HR Khanna was superseded by Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg, a junior jurist in the Top Court.
- The ADM Jabalpur case arose during the Emergency (1975-1977) when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, on PM Indira Gandhi’s government’s recommendation, suspended fundamental rights under Article 359.
- The Constitution Bench of five judges in the ADM Jabalpur case held, by a 4:1 majority, that citizens had no right to seek judicial remedy during an emergency. Justice Khanna, however, however, in the dissenting note stated that the right to life and liberty could not be curtailed.
- Justice HR Khanna’s portrait hangs in Courtroom 2 of the Supreme Court from which he resigned after being superseded as CJI
