• India
  • Oct 25

Justice Sanjiv Khanna appointed as 51st Chief Justice of India

• Justice Sanjiv Khanna was appointed the 51st Chief Justice of India. He will take oath on November 11, a day after incumbent Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud  demits office on attaining the age of 65.

• Justice Chandrachud took over as the CJI on November 8, 2022.

• Justice Khanna will have a tenure of a little over six months as CJI and would demit office on May 13, 2025.

• The retirement age of Supreme Court judges is 65 years.

Who is Justice Khanna?

• 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.

• 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 & Kashmir.

• Justice Khanna, who is the senior-most judge after the outgoing CJI, 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 Supreme Court judge H.R. Khanna, who was part of the landmark verdict propounding the basic structure doctrine in Kesavananda Bharati case of 1973.

• The retirement age of Supreme Court judges is 65 years, while High Court judges demit office at the age of 62 years.

Process for appointment of CJI

• The Chief Justice of India and the judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President under clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution.

• According to the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), which governs the process of appointment of judges in higher judiciary, the outgoing CJI initiates the process of naming the successor after getting a communication from the law ministry. 

• The MoP, however, does not specify the time limit for the initiation of the process of recommending the name of the successor CJI.

• Appointment to the office of the CJI should be of the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court considered fit to hold the office. 

• The Union minister of law, justice and company affairs would, at the appropriate time, seek the recommendation of the outgoing Chief Justice of India for the appointment of the next Chief Justice of India.

• Whenever there is any doubt about the fitness of the senior-most Judge to hold the office of the Chief Justice of India, consultation with other judges as envisaged in Article 124(2) of the Constitution would be made for appointment of the next Chief Justice of India.

• After receipt of the recommendation of the Chief Justice of India, the Union minister of law, justice and company affairs will put up the recommendation to the Prime Minister who will advise the President in the matter of appointment.

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