Who is India’s New CJI Sanjiv Khanna? Know About His Prestigious Family, Education, and Landmark Judgments

New Indian CJI:  Justice Khanna becomes the 51 Chief Justice of India on Monday. He swore the oath at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in Delhi under the administration of President Draupadi Murmu. He succeeded the former CJI, Justice Chandrachud after his retirement. Here is everything you need to know about the new CJI. 

Justice Sanjiv Khanna's Biography 

Justice Sanjiv Khanna comes from a family of judges. His father was Dev Raj Khanna, a former judge of the Delhi High Court, and his uncle Justice HR Khanna has served as the renowned Supreme Court judge known for upholding the right to life and personal liberty even at the time of Emergency in the A.D.M. Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla case. Justice HR Khanna was CJI Sanjiv Khanna’s inspiration to pursue law when he took a turn from Chartered Accountant to his ambitious profession. 

-CJI Sanjiv Khanna is the alma mater of Campus Law Centre, Delhi University, and specializes in taxation, arbitration, commercial law, environmental law, medical negligence law, and company law that he practiced at the Delhi High Court. He joined the Bar Council of Delhi in 1983.

-In his years as an advocate he was a representative of the Delhi Government as an Additional Public Prosecutor in criminal law matters. For seven years he served as Senior Standing Counsel for the Income Tax Department of Delhi and Delhi’s Standing Counsel for civil law matters at the Delhi High Court from 2004.

-In 2006, Justice Khanna was appointed as the permanent judge of the Delhi High Court, where he was also Delhi Judicial Academy and the Delhi International Arbitration Centre

- The recommendations of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi-led collegium promoted him to the Supreme Court where he was appointed by President Ramnath Kovind.

- He assumed the office of India’s 51st CJI on 11 November 2024. 

Landmark Judgements 

Over his prestigious years as a lawyer, he has made many judgments. It was under his administration that Arvind Kejriwal was granted interim bail to campaign for Lok Sabha Elections.

In 2024, he was also part of a five-person bench to strike down the electoral bonds scheme for political funding as unconstitutional. He also upheld the abrogation of Article 370 as valid. The decision revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.