Who is Justice Sanjiv Khanna, the next Chief Justice of India?

Justice Sanjiv Khanna was on Thursday appointed the 51st Chief Justice of India. He will take oath on November 11, a day after incumbent Justice DY Chandrachud demits office on attaining the age of 65. Justice Chandrachud took over as the CJI on November 8, 2022. The Centre recently asked CJI Chandrachud to name his successor.

Who is Justice Sanjiv Khanna?

He is the senior-most judge after the outgoing CJI. Justice Khanna will have a tenure of a little over six months as CJI and will demit office on May 13, 2025. Justice Khanna was appointed an additional judge of the Delhi High Court in 2005 and was made a permanent judge in 2006. On January 18, 2019, he was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court. Born on May 14, 1960, he studied law at the Campus Law Centre of Delhi University.

Some of the notable judgments of Justice Khanna in the Supreme Court include upholding the use of electronic voting machines in elections, saying the devices were secure and eliminated booth capturing and bogus voting. He was also part of the five-judge bench that declared the electoral bond scheme, meant for funding of political parties, as unconstitutional.

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Justice Khanna was a part of the five-judge bench, which upheld the Centre's 2019 decision abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution which granted a special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. He is the nephew of former apex court judge H R Khanna, who was part of the landmark verdict propounding the basic structure doctrine in Kesavananda Bharati case of 1973.

Justice Khanna and the executive chairman of the National Legal Service Authority (NALSA), had granted interim bail to the then Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, an accused in the alleged Delhi excise policy scam cases, for campaigning in Lok Sabha elections. He is the nephew of former apex court judge H R Khanna, who was part of the landmark verdict propounding the basic structure doctrine in Kesavananda Bharati case of 1973.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)