Only 1/3rd of India’s Supreme Court judges have been first-generation lawyers | Number Theory

This three-part data journalism series throws light on the appointment of Supreme Court judges and debates about the highest judiciary’s representativeness.

Outgoing Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna could have been a part of a small club among the 51 CJIs India has had so far but for a landmark case in the history of Indian jurisprudence. Justice Khanna’s uncle, Justice Hans Raj Khanna, was a Supreme Court judge during the Emergency. He was the lone dissenter among five judges who ruled in the ADM Jabalpur case (in the government’s favour) that the fundamental right of Habeas Corpus could be suspended during the Emergency. As an act of vendetta, he was superseded by Indira Gandhi’s government despite being in line to become the CJI.

HT has prepared a complete database of all 279 Supreme Court judges India has had since 26 January 1950(File Photo)

Only 1/3rd of India’s Supreme Court judges have been first-generation lawyers

• 
•