New Delhi: Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who took oath today as the 51st Chief Justice of India, is on a heartfelt mission to locate his ancestral home in Amritsar’s Katra Sher Singh. The historic residence, built before India’s independence by his grandfather Sarav Dayal, has been lost to time.
Sources close to Chief Justice Khanna reveal that every visit to Amritsar includes a pilgrimage to Katra Sher Singh. Despite the area’s transformation over the decades, he remains determined to find the house his grandfather constructed.
Sarav Dayal, grandfather to both Chief Justice Khanna and the esteemed Justice H.R. Khanna, was a prominent lawyer of his era. Notably, he was part of the Congress committee formed to address the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.
During that period, Sarav Dayal acquired two properties: one near Jallianwala Bagh in Katra Sher Singh and another in Dalhousie, Himachal Pradesh. It is the former that Chief Justice Khanna is eager to rediscover.
In the tumultuous times of 1947, around India’s independence, the Katra Sher Singh house was desecrated and set ablaze. However, Sarav Dayal managed to restore it afterwards. A young Sanjiv Khanna, at the age of five, visited the house with his father. He fondly recalls a sign that read “Bauji,” meaning “Grandfather,” which now resides in the Dalhousie home. The Amritsar house was eventually sold in 1970 following Sarav Dayal’s passing.
The memories of this ancestral home have left an indelible mark on Chief Justice Khanna. His continued visits to Katra Sher Singh reflect a deep connection to his family’s legacy and heritage.
He often reminisces about his grandfather’s advice during holidays: to leave schoolbooks behind, assuring him that the wisdom imparted at home would surpass anything found in textbooks.
