Justice H.R. Khanna Memorial Lecture, of Which CJI Surya Kant is Chief Guest, Postponed
New Delhi: The Justice H.R. Khanna Memorial Lecture, which was to take place on July 28 and had as its chief guest, the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, has been postponed.
On July 27, The Wire was told by the organisers of the lecture that the decision was taken "a couple of days ago."
The poster of the event had it that it was to take place on July 28, at 5 pm, at the India International Centre in New Delhi.
The topic of the lecture was 'From Defections to Mergers: The Need to Repeal the Tenth Schedule.'
The poster of the Justice HR Khanna Memorial Lecture.
Senior Advocate Arvind P. Datar was speaker, and former CJI Sanjiv Khanna – who is the late Justice H.R. Khanna's nephew – would have presided.
A panel discussion on 'Fifty Years After ADM Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla' would have followed, with journalist Shekhar Gupta, Chhattisgarh high court former Chief Justice Yatindra Singh, senior advocates C.S. Vaidyanathan and Rajiv Nayar, and NLSIU Bengaluru vice-chancellor, Sudhir Krishnaswamy.
Justice H.R. Khanna had famously delivered the lone dissenting judgement in the ADM Jabalpur ruling.
CJI Surya Kant's position in the Indian polity right now is unique. In May, his remarks saying, “There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment and don’t have any place in profession” led to the formation of the Cockroach Janata Party whose push for the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan for the last couple of months culminated in the minister's exit on July 25. A march to the parliament saw close to 75,000 gather near the Jantar Mantar. During it, police lathicharged indiscriminately, tear gassed protesters and despite denial, fired pellet guns and used nail-studded batons.
On July 22, the CJI told lawyer Narendra Mishra who mentioned the petition challenging police action on protesters, “Don’t waste our time, and don’t waste your time.” Two days later, the CJI said that reports saying that he refused to list a petition challenging the police action against student protesters were “completely false.”
As the protests raged last week, the CJI also said in an interview that his observations had been taken out of context.
Today, however, the CJI orally observed that the right to peaceful protest is “absolutely guaranteed under the constitution” and that mere agitation cannot justify a lathi-charge and cases of police excesses should be independently examined.
There has also been speculation that the convocation of O.P. Jindal Global University's Jindal Global Law School on July 26, was going to be attended by CJI Surya Kant, but ultimately was not. Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi addressed the graduating class instead.
Note: An earlier version of this report erroneously identified Sudhir Krishnaswamy as the former NLSIU Bengaluru V-C. His tenure is ongoing.
This article went live on July twenty-seventh, two thousand twenty six, at fifty-two minutes past twelve at noon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
