CJI Sanjiv Khanna is still trying to find the house built by his grandfather.
New Delhi:
Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who took oath as the country's 51st Chief Justice today, is on the trail of his 'missing' parental home in Amritsar. The pre-independence era house was built by his grandfather, Sarav Dayal.
Sources close to Chief Justice Khanna revealed that whenever he visits Amritsar, he also visits Katra Sher Singh. The stopover is a kind of pilgrimage. Over time, the area has changed, but Judge Khanna is still trying to find the house built by his grandfather.
Chief Justice Khanna's grandfather and legendary judge HR Khanna's father Sarav Dayal was a celebrated lawyer of his time, sources said. He was included in the Congress committee constituted for the Jallianwala Bagh incident of 1919.
Around that time, he had bought two houses: one in Katra Sher Singh near Jallianwala Bagh, and the second in Dalhousie, Himachal Pradesh. It is the Katra Sher Singh house that Judge Khanna is trying to locate.
At the time of independence in 1947, the house in Katra Sher Singh was desecrated and set on fire. But later his grandfather had it restored.
When Chief Justice Khanna was five years old, he once visited that house with his father. There was a sign on the house that read 'Bauji', which means 'Grandfather'. This sign still hangs at the house in Dalhousie. According to sources, the house in Amritsar was sold after Sarav Dayal's death in 1970.
Chief Justice Khanna remembers that house till date. So every time he goes to Amritsar he visits Katra Sher Singh and tries to look for that house.
Chief Justice Khanna always remembers how his grandfather used to tell him not to take textbooks with him during holidays as the education he would impart could not even be found in books.
