Chief Justice's Idol: Uncle Who Took On Indira Gandhi, Was Denied Top Post

Forty-seven years before Justice Sanjiv Khanna took over as the 51st Chief Justice of India, the Khanna family would have got its first chief justice in his uncle Justice Hans Raj Khanna. But a dissent judgment during the Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government cost him the country's top legal post.

Born in 1912, Justice Hans Raj Khanna completed his education in Amritsar and then started out as a lawyer. He was appointed district and sessions judge in 1952 and later became a judge of high courts in Delhi and Punjab. He was appointed a Supreme Court judge in 1971 and was in line for the Chief Justice of India post in 1977.

Destiny, however, had other plans. The Indira Gandhi government imposed the Emergency in 1975. In 1976, a five-judge Constitution bench heard the ADM Jabalpur vs Shivkant Shukla case and ruled that the right to personal liberty can be suspended in the interest of State. Justice Khanna was the sole dissenting judge in that 4:1 verdict. The majority included then Chief Justice AN Ray, Justice MH Beg, Justice YV Chandrachud and Justice PN Bhagwati.

In his judgment, Justice Hans Raj Khanna said the law of preventive detention without trial "is an anathema to all those who love personal liberty". "Such a law makes deep inroads into basic human freedoms which we all cherish and which occupy prime position among the higher values of life," he wrote. Nine months after the judgment, the Indira Gandhi government appointed Justice Beg the Chief Justice, superseding Justice Khanna who was in the line for the top post. Justice Khanna resigned soon after.

Another key verdict Justice Khanna is known for is the Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala judgment in 1973 which saw a 13-judge bench of the Supreme Court outline the basic doctrine of the Constitution. In the landmark verdict passed by a 7-6 majority, the Supreme Court had asserted its right to strike down amendments that violated the fundamental architecture of the Constitution.

Justice Khanna wrote in his judgment that the Parliament had power to amend the Constitution but the basic structure should remain intact.

Following his resignation as a top court judge, Justice Hans Raj Khanna received a request from Janata Party to contest the elections. But he refused. When the Indira Gandhi government lost the 1977 general election, the Janata Party approached him to head the probe panel investigating Emergency-related cases. Justice Khanna refused because he felt it he would appear biased. He held the post of the chairman of Law Commission from 1977 to 1979 without any pay. In 1979, the Charan Singh government named him Union Law Minister, but he resigned in three days. In 1982, he was the Opposition-backed candidate for President, but lost to Zail Singh. Justice Hans Raj Khanna was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1999.

Justice Hans Raj Khanna died in 2008. He was 95. Nine years after his death, the ADM Jabalpur verdict was overruled by a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court in the Puttuswamy vs Union of India judgment. The bench noted that "Justice Khanna was right in holding that the recognition of the right to life and personal liberty under the Constitution does not denude the existence of that right, apart from it nor can there be a fatuous assumption that in adopting the Constitution the people of India surrendered the most precious aspects of the human persona, namely, life, liberty and freedom to the State on whose mercy these rights would depend". It held that judgments by the four judges in the majority were "seriously flawed" and that "life and personal liberty are inalienable to human existence".

How Justice HR Khanna Inspired Nephew

Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna's father Justice Dev Raj Khanna was a judge of Delhi High Court and his mother Saroj Khanna a professor. According to sources close to the family, the couple wanted their son to become a chartered accountant because a legal career had taller challenges. But the future Chief Justice was inspired by his uncle who had the courage to take on the State.

"He always considered his uncle an idol and used to keenly follow his work," a source told NDTV. Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna has preserved all the copies of Justice HR Khanna's judgments, his notes and registers, the source said. The judge plans to donate them to the Supreme Court's library when he retires.

In 2019, Justice Sanjiv Khanna's first day as a Supreme Court judge was in the courtroom his uncle once sat in. The room has a portrait of Justice HR Khanna and the Chief Justice plans to get a photograph clicked next to his inspiration's portrait before he retires.