Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who took over as the new Chief Justice of India on Monday, is known for his key rulings including scrapping the electoral bonds scheme, upholding the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, and the bail plea of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Justice Khanna was sworn in as the 51st Chief Justice of India, succeeding Justice DY Chandrachud at a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. His tenure as the new CJI will be a little over six months, ending on March 13, 2025.
Among Justice Khanna’s first judgments as a Supreme Court judge is his ruling in 2019 that judicial independence does not conflict with the Right to Information. Echoing the majority opinion of a five-judge bench, he argued that while the Chief Justice could be subject to RTI requests, a balance between transparency and judges’ right to privacy must be maintained.
In a judgement last year, a five-judge bench of the apex court upheld the Centre’s 2019 decision to revoke Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Justice Khanna was of the view that Article 370 was an element of “asymmetric federalism”. He said its removal did not compromise the country’s federal structure.
Endorsing the sanctity of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), a bench of Justices Khanna and Dipankar Datta rejected the pleas seeking 100 per cent cross-verification of EVM count with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips.
In May, Justice Khanna’s bench granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the alleged excise policy case to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections. — With inputs from Agencies