Shri Justice H.R. Khanna's voice of dissent must surely be counted amongst the most important in protecting the Indian Republic in the sixty-two years of its existence. The Supreme Court's recent expression of regret for the majority decision in the Habeas Corpus case has brought attention again to Shri Justice H.R. Khanna's contributions towards preserving the fundamental rights, and some may say, the constitutional framework of the Republic itself.
Tragically, Shri Justice H.R. Khanna is no longer amongst us; however, his generous and openhearted family was kind enough to speak with us, and allow us access to his archives and records. We spoke with Mr. Rajiv Khanna, the late Supreme Court Judge's son; Mr. Khanna spoke about Shri Justice H.R. Khanna, the man behind one of the most important voices of dissent that the Indian Republic has ever heard, with Rainmaker's Vidya Raja.
"My grandfather was a lawyer. He practiced till the age of fifty-one or fifty-two. The day my father joined the profession, my grandfather decided to retire. My father would say that he started off with virtually nothing; after three months he earned about five rupees for the first month, but he was very enthusiastic. In his school and college he was head of the Debating Society. He used to do writing, swimming. He was fond of new notes, so he would go to one bank pick up the old notes, go to the next bank and pick up crisp notes. He was very fond of debating. Over a period of time, his practice flourished and he became a leading lawyer in Amritsar.
"If someone came to him with a bad case he would straightaway tell them. He would not ask them to go for litigation in those cases. So therefore he became fairly well known. My grandfather had a great reputation for integrity."
In 1950-51, Justice Khanna wrote the examination to become a District Judge. He became an additional district judge. "We then shifted to Ferozepur. It was a place that had the maximum number of murder cases. He found it very difficult; he could not sleep well at night, and so he had to be treated. After six months or a year he recovered. There were many death sentences, which he had to pronounce."
Recounting one of the cases in which Shri Justice H.R. Khanna sat in judgment, he said, "A father and a son were in for murder. He convicted the father but acquitted the son. The father, rather than saying he was thankful the son was not given the death sentence, said 'may God take you to the highest court'."
After about three years in Ferozepur, the family shifted to Ambala. It was a lonely existence being a judge; there was not much socialising that he did. It was a small well-knit family. The family spent two years in Ambala and then moved to Delhi.
Narrating another incident, Mr. Rajiv Khanna said, "He was investigating a very large and prominent case against Ramkrishna Dalmia -- a famous and well-known industrialist. That was a one-year assignment he had in Delhi. Dalmia brought in lawyers from the U.K., and at the end of it all, after the hearing was over, it was the peak of summer; he brought all the papers home. Since the papers would fly away, he would not switch on the fan. Within a period of a month-and-a-half he dictated the judgement to his secretary, without a fan or air conditioner -- in the peak of summer. He gave an imprisonment sentence to Ramakrishna Dalmia. The case went up to the High Court and Supreme Court, and his judgement was upheld. During this period, Ramakrishna Dalmia did everything possible to try and influence my father. Relatives were approached and several other people were approached. Nobody could do anything about it. Fifteen years later Ramakrishna Dalmia had immense respect for my father and would always invite my father for all the functions in his house."
After that, for a period of four years he was a District and Sessions Judge in Delhi. He then moved to the Punjab High Court, where Chief Justice Falshaw took a liking for him. He would always ensure that he disposed off cases very quickly. He would come home and be with the family for about an hour and then get back to work. He would return home, have his cup of tea and work from 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and if something was bothering him, he would be up at 3:00 a.m. re-writing his judgments and handing them over to the stenographer the next morning. "He was fortunate because he had a very good handwriting."
"Nobody could influence him."
Over a period of time he became the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and subsequently, a Judge of the Supreme Court. "The two major cases he heard were the Kesavananda Bharati case and the Habeas Corpus case. In many ways the Kesavananda Bharati judgement was very pragmatic."
"The times of the Emergency were very lonely times... ...lonely existence. But he stuck to his guns."
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"I cherish my rigid attention to integrity."by RainmakerIndia2,017 views
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