SC: Don't dig up past, stick to issue in hand

NEW DELHI: Seeking Supreme Court 's intervention to remove the words ' secular ' and ' socialist ' from the Preamble of the Constitution, a group of petitioners on Monday submitted that these words were added during Emergency, a period in which even the judiciary could not remain unaffected and the senior-most judge, Justice H R Khanna , was superseded. SC, however, advised them not to delve into the past or raise issues that were not part of the petition.

Justice Khanna was in line to becoming the Chief Justice of India, but was superseded for ruling against the Centre on Emergency, and Justice M H Beg was appointed CJI by then PM Indira Gandhi's govt in 1977. He resigned in protest. In his honour, Justice H R Khanna's portrait now adorns the wall of court no. 2 from where he demitted office.

As the petitioners tried to persuade the court to undo the 42nd constitutional amendment by raking up the issue of Justice H R Khanna, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar, sitting in court number 2, refused to get into the controversy and told the petitioners the issue was not the subject matter of his petition.

Justice Sanjiv Khanna is nephew of Justice H R Khanna and all set to be elevated as CJI on Nov 11. tnn