Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, set to retire on May 13, stated he would avoid hearing cases that require reserved judgments. He made this remark during a hearing on a dispute between the Kerala government and the state’s governor.
New Delhi: Justice Sanjiv Khanna, the 51st and current Chief Justice of India, appeared to be preparing for his retirement on May 13. On Tuesday, he announced that he would no longer be taking on final hearings for cases that require reserving verdicts and writing detailed judgments at home.
When a case involving the legal dispute between the Pinarayi Vijayan-led left front government in Kerala and the state’s governor regarding pending Bills came up for hearing, CJI Khanna informed senior advocate K K Venugopal that he would not hear the case.
He said, adding that the matter would be assigned to another bench,
“I don’t want to reserve judgments any more. That is why I am not reserving verdicts any more and dictating orders and judgments in the court itself,”
Venugopal suggested,
“Today, a bench headed by Justice J B Pardiwala has delivered a thumping judgment deprecating the practice of governors to sit over Bills passed by the assembly and not giving assent to it. This case too can be assigned to the bench headed by Justice Pardiwala.”
He noted that the governor has kept seven bills pending for 23 months.
However, the CJI was non-committal to the request, stating that the judgment should be reviewed by both sides, and he would issue an appropriate administrative order to assign the case to a different bench.
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In the afternoon, CJI Khanna led a special bench, which included Justices A S Oka and Bela M Trivedi, to address matters related to the coal scam cases from the UPA era.
The CJI remarked,
“All three of us have very little time in hand and this case would be assigned to another bench.”
Nevertheless, the bench agreed to the Delhi High Court’s request, with the consent of amici curiae senior advocates R S Cheema and Maninder Singh to relieve one of the special judges from the trial for administrative reasons.
Notably, Justice Khanna is the nephew of former Supreme Court judge Hans Raj Khanna, renowned for his iconic dissent in the ADM Jabalpur case a case that is still celebrated for its stance on fundamental rights.
As a Supreme Court judge, Justice Sanjiv Khanna has made impactful contributions, especially in recent months. He was part of the Constitution Bench that upheld the abrogation of Article 370, a key provision of the Indian Constitution related to Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
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