Hans Raj Khanna (3 July 1912 – 25 February 2008) was an Indian judge,
jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...
and
advocate
An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...
who propounded the
basic structure doctrine
The basic structure doctrine is a common law legal doctrine that the constitution of a sovereign state has certain characteristics that cannot be erased by its legislature. The doctrine is recognised in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, and ...
in 1973 and attempted to uphold civil liberties during the time of
Emergency in India
The Emergency in India was a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had a state of emergency declared across the country. Officially issued by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed under Article 352 of the Constitution beca ...
in a lone dissenting judgement in 1976. He entered the
Indian judiciary
The judiciary of India is a system of courts that interpret and apply the law in the Republic of India. India uses a ''common law system'', first introduced by the British East India Company and with influence from other colonial powers and Ind ...
in 1952 as an Additional District and Sessions Judge and subsequently was elevated as a judge to the
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...
in 1971 where he continued till his resignation in 1977.
He is eulogized for his minority judgment in the highly publicized
Habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
case during the
Indian Emergency
The Emergency in India was a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had a state of emergency declared across the country. Officially issued by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed under Article 352 of the Constitution beca ...
, in which the remaining four judges of the five-member bench, Chief Justice
A. N. Ray
Ajit Nath Ray (29 January 1912 – 25 December 2009) was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India from 25 April 1973 till his retirement on 28 January 1977.
Ray was the lone dissenter among the eleven Supreme Court judges that examin ...
, Justice
M. H. Beg, Justice
Y. V. Chandrachud and Justice
P. N. Bhagwati, agreed with the government's view and submission that even the
fundamental rights
Fundamental rights are a group of rights that have been recognized by a high degree of protection from encroachment. These rights are specifically identified in a constitution, or have been found under due process of law. The United Nations' Sustai ...
enshrined in the
Constitution of India
The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...
like the right to life and liberty stood abrogated during the period of national emergency. Khanna was the lone dissenting vote, and his opinion, claimed that the Article 21 of the Constitution could not possibly be the sole repository of the fundamental rights to life and liberty as these predate the Constitution itself and the existence of these rights cannot be subjugated to any executive decree even during the period of national emergency for these are inalienable to one's life and dignified existence,is praised for his 'fearlessness' and 'eloquence'.
In January 1977, nine months after delivering his venerated dissent in the ADM Jabalpur v. Shiv Kant Shukla (Habeas Corpus) case, Khanna was superseded to the office of the Chief Justice of India by Justice M. H. Beg, contrary to the convention of appointing the senior-most puisne judge as to the next Chief Justice of India on the superannuation of the incumbent, at the behest of the then
Prime Minister of India
The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...
, despite him being the senior-most puisne judge in the Supreme Court at the time of superannuation of A. N. Ray, the incumbent Chief Justice of India. As a result of this, he promptly resigned from the court which was effected in March.
Khanna had previously authored the
basic structure doctrine
The basic structure doctrine is a common law legal doctrine that the constitution of a sovereign state has certain characteristics that cannot be erased by its legislature. The doctrine is recognised in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, and ...
of the
Constitution of India
The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...
in ''
Kesavananda Bharati v. the State of Kerala
Kesavananda Bharati Sripadagalvaru & Ors. v. State of Kerala & Anr. (Writ Petition (Civil) 135 of 1970), also known as the Kesavananda Bharati judgement, was a List of landmark court decisions in India, landmark decision of the Supreme Court of ...
'', which curtailed
Parliament's seemingly unfettered amending power under article 368, restricting its scope of amendment in areas which were part of the Constitution's "basic structure". In addition, he delivered noted judgments in the Ahmedabad St. Xavier's College v. State of Gujarat (1974) and State of Kerala v. N. M. Thomas (1975) cases.
After resigning from the Supreme Court on getting superseded by Justice M. H. Beg to the office of the Chief Justice of India, he served as the central
minister of law and justice
The Minister of Law and Justice is the head of the Ministry of Law and Justice and one of the cabinet ministers of the Government of India. The first Law and Justice Minister of independent India was B. R. Ambedkar, who served in first Nehru min ...
for a very short period of three days in the
Charan Singh Ministry
Charan Singh was sworn in as Prime Minister on 28 July 1979, with outside support by India Congress and Yashwantrao Chavan of Congress (Socialist) faction as his Deputy PM. Just before Singh was to prove his majority in Lok Sabha, Indira Gandhi w ...
after the fall of the Indira Gandhi Government and was later made a combined opposition-sponsored candidate for election as
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
in 1982, losing to
Zail Singh
Giani Zail Singh (, born Jarnail Singh; 5 May 1916 – 25 December 1994) was an Indian politician from Punjab who served as the seventh president of India from 1982 to 1987. He was the first Sikh and the first person from a backward caste to bec ...
.
In 1999, he was awarded the
Padma Vibhushan
The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service" ...
in recognition of his career in judicial service, the second-highest civilian honor given by the
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
.
Early life and background
Khanna was born in
Amritsar
Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha r ...
,
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
in 1912, the son of lawyer and freedom fighter Sarb Dyal Khanna. The family hailed from a trading tradition, but Hans's father had become a leading lawyer and later, the mayor of Amritsar.
[ Hans's mother died at a young age, and the household was run by his grandmother. Khanna took interest in law from an early age and did complete his schooling at DAV High School, Amritsar.
After completing his schooling at D.A.V. High School, Amritsar (1918–1928), He studied at the Hindu College, Amritsar, and ]Khalsa College, Amritsar
Khalsa College ( pa, ਖਾਲਸਾ ਕਾਲਜ ''khālsā kālaj'') is a historic educational institution in the northern Indian city of Amritsar in the state of Punjab, India. Founded in 1892, the sprawling campus is located about eight ...
, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, before joining the Law College, Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
(1932–1934).[Hans Raj Khanna biography]
Supreme Court of India . He married Uma Mehra in 1934 at the age of 22. After completing his graduation in law, he practiced law primarily in Amritsar, dealing mainly with civil cases, and soon gathered a large practice which he maintained till his elevation to the bench in 1952.
Early judicial career
In January 1952 he was nominated by Sir Eric Weston, Chief Justice of Punjab, as District and Sessions Judge. This was "an uncommon appointment.... it had long been the practice to appoint only from the civil service".[ He served in the district courts at ]Ferozepur
Firozpur, also known as Ferozepur, is a city on the banks of the Sutlej River in Firozpur District, Punjab, India. After the partition of India in 1947, it became a border town on the India–Pakistan border with memorials to soldiers who d ...
, and then Ambala
Ambala () is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border with the Indian state of Punjab and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala has two sub-area ...
.
He became known for his decision to convict India's leading industrialist Ramkrishna Dalmia
Dalmia Bharat Group, (DBG) is an Indian conglomerate company, which trace their origin to the businesses established by ''Ramkrishna Dalmia'' and Jaidayal Dalmia. The Dalmia brothers established a business conglomerate in eastern India, in t ...
of corruption.[ Dalmia was to serve several years in ]Tihar Jail
Tihar Prisons, also called Tihar Jail and Tihar Ashram, is a prison complex in India and the largest complex of prisons in South Asia. Run by Department of Delhi Prisons, Government of Delhi, the prison contains nine central prisons, and is one ...
.
He moved as District and Sessions Judge, Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
until he was appointed Judge
of the Punjab High Court in 1962. On the formation of the Delhi High Court
The High Court of Delhi (IAST: ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966'', with four judges, Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. ...
, he joined the bench as one of its first judges. He conducted the inquiry into corruption charges against Biju Patnaik
Bijayananda Patnaik (5 March 1916 – 17 April 1997) was an Indian politician, aviator and businessman. As politician, he served twice as the Chief Minister of the State of Odisha.
Early life
His parents lived in Bellaguntha, Ganjam distri ...
and other Ministers in Orissa
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of Sch ...
. While some of the charges were found true, Biju himself was absolved. He served as Chief Justice of Delhi High Court from 1969 until
September 1971 when he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of India.
Judge of the Supreme Court
Keshavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (Basic Structure Doctrine)
While the Habeas Corpus case is Justice Khanna's most celebrated ruling, almost as well known is his judgment in the landmark case of Kesavananda Bharati. In 1973, the Supreme Court constituted its largest-ever bench of 13 judges to decide whether Parliament had the unfettered right to amend the Constitution or not. On 24 April 1973, seven out of 13 judges held that Parliament's power to amend the Constitution was limited. Six other judges in the case were of the view that Parliament's power was unrestricted. Justice Khanna's judgment held that, although the Constitution is amenable to amendments, changes that ultra vires
('beyond the powers') is a Latin phrase used in law to describe an act which requires legal authority but is done without it. Its opposite, an act done under proper authority, is ('within the powers'). Acts that are may equivalently be termed ...
, tinker with its ''basic structure'' cannot be made by Parliament, that is – certain parts of the constitution were "basic" and could not be amended. However, he also said the amendment of the right was fundamental – as he explained, "if no provision were made for the amendment of the Constitution, the people would have recourse to extra-constitutional methods la ike revolution".
The judgment clarified and partially overruled the court's earlier verdict in Golak Nath by holding that Parliament could amend the Constitution, particularly the property right
The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership) is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely and is typically h ...
.
The Habeas Corpus Case
Justice Khanna is renowned for his courage and independence during the period that has been called the darkest hour of Indian democracy,[
] during the Indian Emergency (1975-1977)
The Emergency in India was a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had a state of emergency declared across the country. Officially issued by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed under Article 352 of the Constitution of I ...
of Indira Gandhi.
The emergency was declared when Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court
Allahabad High Court, also known as High Court of Judicature at Allahabad is the high court based in Prayagraj that has jurisdiction over the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was established on 17 March 1866, making it one of the oldest high ...
invalidated the election of Indira Gandhi to the Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...
in June 1975, upholding charges of electoral fraud,[ in the case filed by ]Raj Narain
Raj Narain (23 November 1917 – 31 December 1986) was an Indian freedom fighter and politician. He won in a famous electoral malpractice case against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, which led to her disqualification and imposition of ...
.
In an atmosphere where a large number of people had been detained without trial under the repressive Maintenance of Internal Security Act
The Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) was a controversial law passed by the Indian parliament in 1971 giving the administration of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Indian law enforcement agencies very broad powers – indefinite pre ...
(MISA), several high courts had given relief to the detainees by accepting their right to habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
as stated in Article 21 of the Indian constitution
The Constitution of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental r ...
. This issue was at the heart of the case of th
''Additional District Magistrate of Jabalpur v. Shiv Kant Shukla''
popularly known as the ''Habeas Corpus case'', which came up for hearing in front of the
Supreme Court in December 1975. Given the important nature of the case, a bench comprising the five seniormost judges was convened to hear the case.
During the arguments, Justice Khanna at one point asked the Attorney General Niren De
Niren De was an Indian Lawyer and was the Attorney General of India from November 1968 to March 1977 and it covered Indian Emergency. He was earlier the Solicitor General of India. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1974. He was also the Chairma ...
: "Life is also mentioned in Article 21, and would Government argument extend to it also?". He answered, "Even if life was taken away legally, courts are helpless".[
The bench opined in April 1976, with the majority deciding against habeas corpus, permitting unrestricted powers of detention during an emergency. Justices ]A. N. Ray
Ajit Nath Ray (29 January 1912 – 25 December 2009) was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India from 25 April 1973 till his retirement on 28 January 1977.
Ray was the lone dissenter among the eleven Supreme Court judges that examin ...
, P. N. Bhagwati, Y. V. Chandrachud, and M.H. Beg, stated in the majority decision:
: Given the Presidential Order eclaring emergencyno person has any locus to move any writ petition under Art. 226 before a High Court for habeas corpus or any other writ or order or direction to challenge the legality of an order of detention.
Justice Beg even went on to observe: "We understand that the care and concern bestowed by the state authorities upon the welfare of detenues who are well housed, well-fed, and well treated, is almost maternal."
However, Justice Khanna resisted the pressure to concur with this majority view. He wrote in his dissenting opinion:
:The Constitution and the laws of India do not permit life and liberty to be at the mercy of the absolute power of the Executive . . . . What is at stake is the rule of law. The question is whether the law speaking through the authority of the court shall be silenced and rendered mute... detention without trial is an anathema to all those who love personal liberty.[Granville Austin, ''Working a Democratic Constitution: The Indian Experience'', ]Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
1999, p. 334-41
In the end, he quoted Justice Charles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes Sr. (April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948) was an American statesman, politician and jurist who served as the 11th Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the ...
:
:A dissent is an appeal to the brooding spirit of the law, to the intelligence of a future day, when a later decision may correct the error into which the dissenting judge believes the court to have been betrayed.
Before delivering this opinion, Justice Khanna mentioned to his sister: ''I have prepared my judgment, which is going to cost me the Chief Justice-ship of India.''[
]
Aftermath of the judgment
True to his apprehensions, his junior, M. H. Beg, was appointed Chief Justice in January 1977. This was against legal tradition and was widely protested by bar associations and the legal community. Justice Khanna resigned on the same day.[
After his resignation Bar Associations all over India, in protest, abstained from the courts and took out black-coat processions, though to no avail. However, this was the last supersession in the history of the Supreme Court, and eventually, the judiciary even wrested the power of judicial appointments from the executive in a landmark ruling in the ''Advocates-on-Record'' case in 1993 (also known as the Second Judges Case).
The ]New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
, wrote at the time:
If India ever finds its way back to the freedom and democracy that were proud hallmarks of its first eighteen years as an independent nation, someone will surely erect a monument to Justice H R Khanna of the Supreme Court. It was Justice Khanna who spoke out fearlessly and eloquently for freedom this week in dissenting from the Court's decision upholding the right of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's Government to imprison political opponents at will and without court hearings... The submission of an independent judiciary to an absolutist government is virtually the last step in the destruction of a democratic society, and the Indian Supreme Court's decision appears close to utter surrender.
This judgment has been consistently lauded by lawyers, scholars, and intellectuals alike and has been compared to the dissent of Lord Atkin
James Richard Atkin, Baron Atkin, (28 November 1867 – 25 June 1944), commonly known as Dick Atkin, was an Australian-born British judge, who served as a lord of appeal in ordinary from 1928 until his death in 1944. He is especially remembere ...
in Liversidge v Anderson
''Liversidge v Anderson'' 942AC 206 is a landmark United Kingdom administrative law case which concerned the relationship between the courts and the state, and in particular the assistance that the judiciary should give to the executive in times o ...
.
Nani Palkhivala's book, which came out soon after the emergency was revoked, carried a full-fledged chapter on him titled, "Salute to Justice Khanna".
At one point in the chapter, he says of Justice Khanna, "his statue must be installed in every street and corner of the country for the yeoman service rendered by him for the cause of justice".
In December 1978, his full-size portrait was unveiled in his former court, courtroom number 2 of the Supreme Court. To this day, nobody else has had the singular honor of having their portrait put up in the Supreme Court during their lifetime. In fact, when the Supreme Court Bar Association asked for contributions from its members to collect Rs 10,000 for the portrait, within half an hour Rs 30,000 was on the table and the members of the bar had to be forcibly stopped.
Post-judicial career
Upon the suspension of the emergency, the Janata Party
The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...
which was preparing for the impending elections urged him to contest them but he refused to prefer instead to carry on chamber practice. He was highly active with it, taking international arbitrations into his early nineties.
After Indira Gandhi lost the elections of 1977, the ruling Janata Party wanted him to head the Commission of Inquiry against the illegal imposition of the emergency and the various atrocities committed during it but Khanna refused, as he felt he would appear biased against Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi
Sanjay Gandhi (14 December 1946 23 June 1980) was an Indian politician and the younger son of Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi. He was a member of parliament, Lok Sabha and the Nehru–Gandhi family. During his lifetime, he was widely expected ...
.
He was then offered the Chairmanship of the Finance Commission
The Finance Commissions (IAST: ''Vitta Āyoga'') are commissions periodically constituted by the President of India under ''Article 280'' of the Indian Constitution to define the financial relations between the central government of India an ...
, a position he also refused. He did however accept the office of Chairman of the Law Commission
A law commission, law reform commission, or law revision commission is an independent body set up by a government to conduct law reform; that is, to consider the state of laws in a jurisdiction and make recommendations or proposals for legal chang ...
, a post he held without any pay. He resigned from its chairmanship in 1979 when he was inducted into the cabinet as Union Law Minister by Charan Singh
Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987) served as the 5th Prime Minister of India between 28 July 1979 to 14 January 1980. Historians and people alike frequently refer to him as the 'champion of India's peasants.'
Charan S ...
. However, he resigned within 3 days. As it so happened, the entire government fell within six months.
In 1982 Khanna was nominated for President of India, as a combined opposition candidate supported by as many as nine opposition parties.[Scrupulous Indian judge who defended the constitutional rule of law, Times UK]
/ref> However, the Congress Party had a huge majority numerically and he lost to Giani Zail Singh
Giani Zail Singh (, born Jarnail Singh; 5 May 1916 – 25 December 1994) was an Indian politician from Punjab who served as the seventh president of India from 1982 to 1987. He was the first Sikh and the first person from a backward caste to bec ...
.
From 1985 until 2000, he was the national president of the Bharat Vikas Parishad, after which he became patron to the organisation.
He was a long time board member of, and for many years the chairman of the Press Trust of India
The Press Trust of India Ltd., commonly known as PTI, is the largest news agency in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi and is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 500 Indian newspapers. It has over 500 full-time employees , including abo ...
.[
]
In 1998, the Justice HR Khanna committee was constituted by the railway ministry with the mandate of "reviewing the implementation of previous accident inquiry committees, of examining the adequacy of existing practices for the safe running of trains and to suggest safety measures." Under his chairmanship, the Railway Safety Review Committee made 278 recommendations, out of which 239 were accepted by the railways.
In 2001 he chaired the advisory panel to the Government of India on strengthening the institutions of parliamentary democracy.
A prolific writer, he also lectured regularly and many of his lectures were later published in book form. Among the books he has authored, are "Judicial Review or Confrontation" (1977), ''Constitution and civil liberties'' (1978, based on the B. R. Ambedkar
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served a ...
memorial lectures), ''Making of India's Constitution'' (1981, based on the Sulakshani Devi Mahajan lectures), "Judiciary in India and Judicial Process" (1985, based on the Tagore Law Lectures), Liberty, Democracy and Ethics, Society and the Law, which mainly deal with Indian law and the constitution. He also wrote an autobiography, ''Neither Roses nor Thorns'', (Lucknow, 1985).
In the conclusion of his ''Making of India's constitution'', he writes:
If the Indian constitution is our heritage bequeathed to us by our founding fathers, no less are we, the people of India, the trustees, and custodians of the values which pulsate within its provisions! A constitution is not a parchment of paper, it is a way of life and has to be lived up to. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and in the final analysis, its only keepers are the people. The imbecility of men, history teaches us, always invites the impudence of power."
He published his autobiography, ''Neither Roses Nor Thorns'' in 2003. Khanna died on 25 February 2008 at the age of 95.
Honours and tributes
The government of India honored him with the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award, in 1999.
He has been awarded honorary Doctor of Law
A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL ...
degrees by numerous universities, including Faculty of Law, University of Delhi
The Faculty of Law, University of Delhi is the law department of the University of Delhi. It has the unique distinction of producing the largest number of sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India.
It is situated in the north campus of the ...
, National Law School of India University
The National Law School of India University (NLSIU or simply NLS) is a public law school and a National Law University located in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was the first National Law University to be established in India as well as one of the f ...
, Government Law College, Mumbai
The Government Law College, Mumbai, (GLC Mumbai), founded in 1855, is the one of the oldest law schools in Asia. The college, affiliated to the University of Mumbai, is run by the Government of Maharashtra.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak ,Pratibha Pa ...
, University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...
and his alma mater Panjab University
Panjab University (PU) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public state university located in Chandigarh, Punjab. Funded through both Punjab, India, State and Government of India, Union governments, it is considered a state university (Indi ...
.
On the occasion of his 90th birthday, the Supreme Court Bar Association presented him with a plaque conferring upon him the title of "Living Legend of Law".
Two sets of lectures are held in Justice Khanna's honor.
A series of lectures were organized by Justice Khanna's family for some years after his death but were subsequently discontinued. They were presided over by Soli Sorabjee
Soli Jehangir Sorabjee, AM (9 March 193030 April 2021) was an Indian jurist who served as Attorney-General for India from 1989 to 1990, and again from 1998 to 2004. In 2002, he received the Padma Vibhushan for his defence of the freedom of exp ...
, who was a very close friend of Justice Khanna's.
The first lecture was delivered by Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah, on the topic "The Constitutional World of Justice Khanna". In 2010, the speaker was K.K. Venugopal. The third installment in 2011 was delivered by Justice Santosh Hegde. In 2012, the last in this succession of lectures, the H.R. Khanna Centennial Memorial Lecture was held – the speakers of which were Justice J.S. Verma and B G Verghese.
The KIIT Law School
KIIT School of Law (KLS) is a private law school in Bhubaneswar, Odisha within the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) campus, to which it is affiliated. KLS offers five years integrated course in BA LL.B., BBA LL.B. and BSc L ...
also holds an H.R. Khanna Memorial Lecture. The first one was delivered by Gopal Subramaniam
Gopal Subramanium (born ) is an Indian lawyer, international arbitrator, academic and Senior Advocate who practices primarily in the Supreme Court of India and the Delhi High Court. He served as the Solicitor General of India 2009–2011 and ...
, in 2011 on the topic "Legal and Political Processes in Modern Indian Democracy". It was presided over by Justice Ranganath Misra. The same lecture for the year 2012 was delivered by Justice Dipak Misra.
International Journal of Law & Management Studies holds an Essay Competition in honor of Justice Khanna called the IJLMS Justice H.R. Khanna Memorial Essay Competition in May annually. The First Edition of this competition was held in association with IPMarkets, Hyderabad.[
]
Bibliography
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References
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External links
Autobiography: Neither Roses Nor Thorns (Amazon)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khanna, Hans
20th-century Indian judges
Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in public affairs
Punjab, India politicians
Scholars from Amritsar
The Emergency (India)
2008 deaths
1912 births
Candidates for President of India
Dayanand Anglo-Vedic Schools System alumni
Justices of the Supreme Court of India
Law Ministers of India
Chief Justices of the Delhi High Court
Indian autobiographers
20th-century Indian lawyers
Indian legal writers
Writers from Amritsar