A native of Srinagar, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul was born on 26 December 1958. Kaul hails from the family of the Dattatreya Kauls of Srinagar. His great-great-grandfather, Raja Suraj Kishan Kaul, was the Revenue minister in the Regency council of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. His great-grandfather, Sir Daya Kishan Kaul, was a statesman and diplomat who served as the finance minister of Jammu & Kashmir state. His grandfather, Raja Upinder Kishen Kaul, had a distinguished career in public service. Justice Kaul's brother, Neeraj Kishan Kaul, was also a judge of the Delhi High court, having been appointed in the summer of 2009. After schooling in Modern School, New Delhi, Sanjay Kishan Kaul graduated in Economics from Delhi University, studying in St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He then took a degree in law, studying at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, taking the LLB in 1982.
Interests & associations
Justice Kaul is a member of various prestigious institutions like Indian International center, India Law Institute, India Habitat Center, Roshanara club amongst others. Theatre, music, Golf & reading, including subjects unrelated to law are amongst his other areas of interest.
Justice Kaul was appointed additional judge of Delhi high court on 3 May 2001, and was made a permanent judge in 2003. He was also the acting chief justice of Delhi high court in September 2012. He became Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court in June 2013. As a chancellor The chancellor of TNNLS is the Chief Justice of Madras high court. And hence he is currently serving also as the chancellor of TNNLS.And he has also visited the college and addressed the students.
Notable judgments
In the year 2017, on 24 August, Justice Kaul along with eight brother judges ruled in favour of Privacy being a Fundamental Right, which is a watershed moment in the history of Constitutional Jurisprudence of India.
2008 Judgement as Delhi HC Judge, where Kaul dismissed the charges levied against M F Hussain for his painting of a lady later termed as 'Bharat Mata', accusing him of obscenity. Upholding free speech and expression, Justice Kaul expressed agreement with Husain's contention that there was no deliberate intention on his part to hurt anybody's religious feeling as the figure actually represented an "anthropomorphic depiction of a nation" in the form of a distressed woman. Justice Kaul in his conclusion mentions,
Pluralism is the soul of democracy. There should be freedom for the thought we hate. Freedom of speech has no meaning if there is no freedom after speech. The reality of democracy is to be measured by the extent of freedom and accommodation it extends.
