Long live CJI Sanjiv Khanna

By

By Justice Markandey Katju-

Justice Markandey Katju

(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge, Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman of Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own.)

Long live Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, who along with his two colleagues on the bench, Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Vishwanathan, has stayed surveys and other interim orders in pending suits, and prohibited registration of fresh suits, regarding mosques and dargahs. This order has prevented turmoil on a large scale throughout India, which had been initiated by the dishonest Ayodhya verdict, and the dishonest statements of former CJI DY Chandrachud in the Gyanvapi mosque case, which legitimized surveys of mosques and dargahs, making the Places of Worship Act, 1991 otiose. The survey could be a precursor, and lead to the eventual destruction of the mosque or dargah by a mob of bigots, as it happened to the Babri masjid.

It seems that Chandrachud did not want to displease the ruling BJP government whose whole politics runs on polarization and keeping the communal pot boiling. So he did not hesitate in making observations in the Gyanvapi case which would open the floodgates to increasing communalism exponentially, something which would benefit the BJP, and ensure his getting some important post-retirement sinecure or assignment, like former CJI Ranjan Gogoi, just as he did not hesitate in giving the Ayodhya verdict to ensure his becoming CJI.

Justice Khanna is proving to be a worthy successor of his great uncle, Justice HR Khanna, who bravely dissented in the ADM Jabalpur case, even at the cost of losing Chief Justiceship.

Thus, Justice Khanna has proved to be a chip of the old block, just as former CJI DY Chandrachud proved to be a chip of the old block by giving dishonest judgements  e.g. in the Ayodhya verdict, to become CJI, just as his father former CJI YV Chandrachud gave a dishonest judgment in the ADM Jabalpur case.