Law & Justice's Justice H. R. Khanna: A Courageous Judge's Life and Journey – by Dr. Lokendra Malik and Dr. Manish Arora

Law & Justice Publishing Co. publishes Justice H. R. Khanna: A Courageous Judge's Life and Journey by Dr. Lokendra Malik and Dr. Manish Arora — a 494-page biography of the judge whose single dissent cost him the Chief Justiceship of India and secured his place in the country's constitutional memory.

The dissent

In ADM Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla (1976), decided at the height of the Emergency, the Supreme Court was asked whether a person detained without trial had any remedy at all while fundamental rights stood suspended. Four judges held that he had none — that even a life taken unlawfully by the State could not be questioned in a court. Justice H. R. Khanna alone dissented, holding that the right to life and personal liberty did not owe its existence to the Constitution and could not be extinguished by proclamation.

He knew what it would cost. He was superseded for the office of Chief Justice of India and resigned from the Court. The dissent was formally approved by the Supreme Court four decades later in K.S. Puttaswamy (2017), which declared the majority in ADM Jabalpur to have been wrong.

What the book covers

• Early life and the Partition, and the making of a judge who had seen the State's capacity for harm at first hand.
• Career at the Bar and on the Bench — the District judiciary, the Punjab High Court, the Delhi High Court and elevation to the Supreme Court of India.
• Major judgments, including his contribution in Kesavananda Bharati on the basic structure doctrine.
• The ADM Jabalpur dissent in full historical and constitutional context — what was argued, what the majority held, what he wrote, and what followed.
• The supersession and resignation, and the question of judicial independence it raised and still raises.
• Life after the Court and his continuing place in Indian constitutional thought.

Why read it

• Written in a narrative style rather than as a case commentary — it does not require legal training to follow.
• The judgments set in their historical setting, which is how the Emergency-era jurisprudence has to be read to make sense.
• A study in judicial independence — the question of what a judge should do when the cost of deciding correctly is personal.
• 494 pages, Edition 2026.

Who should buy this book

• Law students and judiciary aspirants — ADM Jabalpur and the basic structure doctrine are core constitutional law, and this is the human account behind them.
• Advocates and judges.
• Civil services aspirants, for whom the Emergency, judicial independence and the rule of law are standing topics.
• Academics and researchers in constitutional law, legal history and Indian politics.
• General readers interested in the Emergency and in democracy and the rule of law in India.

About the authors

Dr. Lokendra Malik is an advocate of the Supreme Court of India and a writer on constitutional law and the judiciary. Dr. Manish Arora is a legal author and publisher with a long list of titles in Indian law.