Delhi HC bids farewell to Justice Sanjiv Khanna

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday bid farewell to Justice Sanjiv Khanna after his elevation to the Supreme Court. Justice Khanna, who will be sworn in on Friday, will have his tenure as the apex court judge till May 14, 2025, and is likely to be the Chief Justice of India for six months as per seniority. 

Before him, Justice D Y Chandrachud is expected to be the CJI and his term will end on November 10, 2024. The superannuation of judges of the top court is at the age of 65 years. Justice Khanna, 58, will take oath as Supreme Court judge along with Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court.

Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajendra Menon, whose name was earlier recommended for elevation by the apex court collegium and then put on the back burner, congratulated Justice Khanna and observed that he "discharged his duty with utmost honesty and sincerity" and gave "quality judgements". 

While Justice Menon expressed his best wishes to Justice Khanna, Delhi Bar Council chairman K C Mittal said there was a feeling among the lawyers that other senior judges and the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court "should have been given their due". "But destiny nobody can change," Mittal added. 

Apart from Justice Menon, Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court Pradeep Nandrajog was also recommended by the collegium in December 2018 for elevation to the apex court. 

Delhi High Court's Justice S Ravindra Bhat, who is senior to Justice Khanna, was recommended for heading the Rajasthan High Court after Justice Nandrajog's elevation. 

However, the collegium on January 10 put its earlier recommendations on the back burner and forwarded the names of Justice Khanna and Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari for elevation to the apex court. Mittal, in his speech, said that these developments indicated that there was a need to "streamline" the collegium system to make it "transparent, accountable and objective".

 Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra, who also spoke at the event, welcomed the elevation saying "life has come full circle for the Khanna family". 

He said, "In 1977, late Justice Hans Raj Khanna, uncle of Justice Sanjiv Khanna, was overlooked for the post of Chief Justice of India by the then Prime Minister of India during Emergency, for his minority judgement in the highly publicised ADM Jabalpur case wherein he disagreed with the remaining four judges of the bench and ruled that fundamental rights cannot be suspended even during such periods, like the Emergency. 

"Being superseded as the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court, Justice H R Khanna promptly resigned from the court and now after more than four decades, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, his nephew, because of sheer hardwork, simplicity and intellect is all set to grace the highest office of CJI immediately after Justice D Y Chandrachud's tenure gets over."