NEW DELHI: CJI D Y Chandrachud has written to the Union govt proposing the appointment of Justice Sanjiv Khanna as CJI on Nov 11, a day after he retires. Justice Khanna will have a six-month tenure as head of the judiciary, and retire on May 13 next year.
Justice Chandrachud, the 50th CJI, proposed the appointment of Justice Khanna as his successor in a communication addressed to law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Wednesday.He handed over a copy of that letter to Justice Khanna in presence of judges of SC.
Justice Khanna, who was appointed as a judge of Delhi high court in 2005, was elevated as a judge of Supreme Court on Jan 18, 2019, during the tenure of CJI Ranjan Gogoi. Nephew of fiercely independent SC Judge H R Khanna, Justice Khanna had begun his practice in the Tis Hazari trial courts in 1983, and later, moved his law practice to Delhi HC.
Considered an authority on taxation, company and arbitration laws along with his diverse practice in constitutional and environmental laws, Justice Khanna’s appointment as CJI on Nov 11 would give a Delhi HC judge the top judicial post after 18 years, as Justice Y K Sabharwal from the same HC had retired as CJI on Jan 13, 2007.
Known for engaging with lawyers intensely in the courtroom and putting them questions opposite to their line of arguments to elicit the best legal points, Justice Khanna is at present the executive chairperson of the National Legal Services Authority, which in the recent past had organised a nationwide Lok Adalat that disposed of more than 7.7 lakh cases and settled financial disputes worth Rs 2,734 crore.
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