President Droupadi Murmu officially confirmed the appointment of Justice Sanjiv Khanna as the next Chief Justice of India (CJI) on Thursday, following the approval of the Central government.
Justice Khanna will succeed the current CJI, DY Chandrachud, upon his retirement on November 10, becoming the 51st Chief Justice of India.
In line with tradition, CJI Chandrachud had earlier recommended Justice Khanna, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, for the position. Union Minister of State for Law & Justice, Arjun Ram Meghwal, announced the appointment on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
In exercise of the power conferred by the Constitution of India, Hon’ble President, after consultation with Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Judge of the Supreme Court of India as Chief Justice of India with effect from 11th…
— Arjun Ram Meghwal (@arjunrammeghwal) October 24, 2024
Justice Khanna will have a brief tenure of 183 days, retiring on May 13, 2025. He began his legal career in 1983, practicing in taxation, constitutional law, arbitration, commercial, and environmental matters. In 2004, he was appointed Standing Counsel (Civil) for Delhi and became an Additional Judge of the Delhi High Court in 2005, before being made a permanent judge the following year. He was elevated to the Supreme Court in January 2019.
Justice Khanna, the nephew of renowned former Supreme Court judge Hans Raj Khanna, who is remembered for his dissent in the ADM Jabalpur case, has delivered significant rulings during his time in the Supreme Court. Notably, he was part of the Constitution Bench that upheld the abrogation of Article 370 and the one that struck down the controversial Electoral Bonds scheme allowing anonymous donations to political parties.
In May 2023, Justice Khanna was also part of a Bench that ruled the Supreme Court has the power to grant divorce in cases of irretrievable breakdown of marriage under Article 142 of the Constitution. He was involved in key judgments such as rejecting the plea for tallying all VVPAT slips with EVM votes, denying a stay on the appointment of new Election Commissioners, and granting interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi excise policy case. His Bench also granted bail to MP Sanjay Singh in the same case.
Earlier this year, Justice Khanna led a Bench that partially stayed a Mumbai college’s ban on burqas, hijabs, and niqabs on campus. In July, he recused himself from reviewing petitions challenging the Supreme Court’s decision not to recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions. In 2021, he dissented in the case related to the Central Vista Project.
Justice Khanna’s 2019 elevation to the Supreme Court came as a surprise to him. In a Full Court Reference at the High Court, he addressed issues such as the delay in case disposal, high litigation costs, and the perception that cases cannot be won without deceit. He described his judicial philosophy as being a “keeper of law” rather than a creator of it, emphasizing that “enthusiasm is not a virtue of a judge.”
(With inputs from agency)
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