CJI Chandrachud formally proposes Justice Sanjiv Khanna as successor

Upon approval by the government, Justice Khanna will become the 51st Chief Justice of India.

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud has written to the Union government's Law Ministry, naming Justice Sanjiv Khanna, the second-most senior judge of the Supreme Court, as his successor.

Justice Chandrachud is to demit office upon superannuation on November 10.

According to the convention and the Memorandum of Procedure, the central government wrote to him last week requesting that he name his successor.

In response, CJI Chandrachud named Justice Khanna as his successor for being the second senior-most judge in the Supreme Court.

Justice Khanna will become the 51st Chief Justice of India, after the central government’s approval.

He will have a tenure of over six months in office and will retire on May 13, 2025.

Justice Khanna has been a part of several important rulings, including on dilution of Article 370 of the Constitution.

He was part of a bench, which gave a go-ahead to the Central Vista Project. A bench presided over by him gave interim bail to former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in an Enforcement Directorate case in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.

He was also part of the five-judge bench which struck down the 2018 electoral bonds scheme.

Justice Khanna enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Delhi in 1983. He initially practised in the district courts at the Tis Hazari complex, Delhi, and later, in the High Court of Delhi and tribunals in fields as diverse as constitutional law, direct taxation, arbitration, commercial law, company law, land law, environmental law and medical negligence.

He also had a long tenure as the senior standing counsel for the Income Tax Department. In 2004, he was appointed as the Standing Counsel (Civil) for the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Justice Khanna was elevated as an additional judge of the Delhi High Court in 2005 and was made a permanent judge in 2006.

As a judge of the Delhi High Court, he held the position of chairman/judge-in-charge, Delhi Judicial Academy, Delhi International Arbitration Centre and the District Court Mediation Centres. He was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court on January 18, 2019. He held the post of chairman of the Supreme Court Legal Service Committee, from June 17, 2023 till December 25, 2023.

He is presently the executive chairman of the National Legal Services Authority and a member of the governing council of the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal.