Electoral bonds, Article 370 & more: The key rulings of Justice Sanjiv Khanna, the new CJI

Justice Sanjiv Khanna has been sworn in as the 51st Chief Justice of India (CJI), succeeding Justice DY Chandrachud. His oath ceremony was held on Monday (November 11) at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The new CJI will serve a short tenure of a little over six months, ending on May 13, 2025. From scrapping the electoral bonds scheme to upholding the abrogation of Article 370, Justice Khanna is known for his key rulings in the Supreme Court.

Shri Justice Sanjiv Khanna sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan today pic.twitter.com/GltVkFYIAT

— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) November 11, 2024

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Let’s take a look at some of his major judgements.

Electoral bond scheme

Justice Khanna was part of a five-judge Constitution bench that deemed the electoral bond scheme unconstitutional earlier this year.

An electoral bond was a bearer instrument like a promissory note that could be purchased by citizens or entities to donate funds to political parties. Such bonds were issued in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 1 crore at select branches of the State Bank of India (SBI).

In a concurring opinion, Justice Khanna had detailed how the anonymous scheme violated constitutional rights. He noted that donor privacy did not apply to donations made through banking channels, pointing out that the identity of donors was “asymmetrically known” to the bank officers handling the bonds.

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Repeal of Article 370

In a landmark 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 India’s federal structure.

VVPATs and EVMs

The EVM-VVPAT issue also came before Justice Khanna. 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.

“There are three pleas taken — that we should return to the paper ballot system, that the printed slips on the VVPAT machine should be given to voters to verify and put in the ballot box for counting, and there should be 100 per cent counting of VVPAT slips in addition to electronic counting…We have rejected all of them after referring to the protocol in place, technical aspects and data which is on record,” the bench said in April.

The apex court had, however, directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure further safeguards including allowing candidates to seek verification of the EVMs.

Arvind Kejriwal’s interim bail

In May, Justice Khanna’s bench granted interim bail to the then-Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the alleged excise policy case to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections.

Justices Khanna and Datta had said that “21 days (the period of bail) will not make any difference”. The bench also pointed out that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief only in March this year while the case was registered two years ago.

“For one-and-a-half years he was there… he could have been arrested before or after (the election) also. Whatever it is, 21 days here or there should not make any difference,” the top court said.

On July 12, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal, questioning the legality and necessity of his arrest by the ED in the Delhi excise policy case.

Right to Information (RTI)

In a landmark judgement in 2019, Justice Khanna ruled that the RTI Act is applicable to the office of the CJI. He emphasised the need to maintain a balance between judicial transparency and judges’ right to privacy.

His verdict reinforced that judicial independence and transparency can go hand in hand.

Divorce

Last year, Justice Khanna wrote the majority opinion in the Shilpa Sailesh vs Varun Sreenivasan case, affirming the Supreme Court’s power to directly grant divorces under Article 142 of the Constitution.

“Article 142 must be considered in light of the fundamental public policy. It should not contravene a non-derogable function of the Constitution. Court under the power is empowered to do complete justice,” the Supreme Court said.

The verdict said that the top court can grant a divorce on the grounds of “irretrievable breakdown of marriage” to ensure “complete justice” in marital disputes.

With inputs from agencies