President Ram Nath Kovind appoints Dinesh Maheshwari, Sanjiv Khanna apex court judges

President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna as Supreme Court judges. The collegium decision to set aside an earlier recommendation and, instead, recommend Maheshwari and Khanna as judges had sparked off a controversy, with many former judges and at least one sitting SC judge raising objections.

The controversy erupted after it came to light that over 30 other senior judges had been bypassed. To stave off the criticism, the collegium is believed to be debating other names for elevation to the top court. Justice Maheshwari was the Karnataka High Court chief justice and Justice Khanna was a puisne judge of the Delhi High Court.

Khanna is the nephew of legendary SC judge HR Khanna who, in a dissenting judgment, went against the majority verdict endorsing suspension of Fundamental Rights during Emergency. As a result, he was superseded and never became the CJI. But he had the honour of seeing his portrait in the court in his lifetime.


Khanna superseded at least three senior judges from the Delhi HC — Justices Pradeep Nadrajog (now Rajasthan HC chief justice), Gita Mittal (now J&K HC chief justice) and Ravindra Bhatt (a Delhi HC judge). Given his young age, he may become the CJI for a short period. The old collegium, which included Justice Madan B Lokur, had on December 12 recommended elevation of Justices Nandrajog and Rajendra Menon, chief justice of the Delhi HC, to the SC. Justice Lokur has since demitted office. But a new collegium, which included the CJI and the CJI-in-waiting SA Bobde, along with Justices AK Sikri, NV Ramana and Arun Mishra, had in its first meeting on January 10 decided to elevate Maheshwari and Khanna. The collegium may recommend a few more names to thwart the criticism that it had overlooked equally deserving candidates, sources said.