Hans Raj Khanna (July 3, 1912 – February 25, 2008) was a legendary judge of the Supreme Court of India (1971–1977). Two of his judgements form the basis of modern constitutional law, decades after they were delivered. In the Habeas Corpus case during the Indian Emergency, four other judges agreed with the government view that even fundamental rights like the right to life stood abrogated during Emergency. Khanna's dissenting opinion, claiming that the Constitution did not permit right to life and liberty to be subject to executive decree, is widely regarded as a landmark in Indian democracy. Previously he had authored the Basic structure doctrine of the Constitution of India in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, which curtailed Parliament's amending power, restricting its scope of amendment in areas which were part of the Constitution's "basic structure".
On January 3, 1977, after delivering the Habeas Corpus judgement, he was superseded for the post of Chief Justice by Indira Gandhi, despite being the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court and as a result of this, he resigned from the court.. He later served as Law Minister of India, and was a combined opposition-sponsored candidate for election as President in 1982 though he lost the election to Zail Singh.
Read more about Hans Raj Khanna: Early Life, Early Judicial Career, Post-judicial Career, Honours and Tributes
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“Dogmatic toleration is nonsense: I would no more tolerate the teaching of Calvinism to children if I had power to persecute it than the British Raj tolerated suttee in India. Every civilized authority must draw a line between the tolerable and the intolerable.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)