November 12,2017:

On Saturday, the SC Registry has published the circular notifying that the lawyers and the litigants not to orally mention the fresh cases before any other Supreme Court judge except before Bench presided by CJI.

After the Constitution Bench of Supreme Court declared that CJI is “Master of the Roster” who alone could decide what case goes to which judge in Apex Court.

But the circular which has been issued by the Registry does not provide for the contingency when CJI is either on the leave or is unable to come to court for any other reason.

Circular has in effect, put a stop to practice of the lawyers or the litigants mentioning their cases before Justice Chelameswar’s court. He is number two judge in the Supreme Court according to the seniority.

CJI has been recently having back-to-back Constitution Bench hearings from Tuesdays to Thursdays. So, all the oral mentionings were made before the two-judge Bench led by Justice Chelameswar.

Mentioning of the fresh and the urgent cases is done by the lawyers and litigants for an early listing and, if possible, an out-of-turn hearing.

Circular is also significant as it was an oral mention before Justice Chelameswar’s Bench on November 9 that led to the series of events culminating in an almost impromptu hearing by the five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI on November 10 in the Medical College Graft Case

On November 9, Advocate Kamini Jaiswal had made an urgent oral mention of a petition before two-judge Bench wanting investigation into medical college corruption case to be transferred from CBI to the SIT supervised by a Retired CJI.

Petition had further stated that the FIR alleged that a conspiracy was hatched to bribe the Supreme Court judges.

Apex Court’s Two-judge Bench had immediately listed the case for hearing in the same afternoon and had ordered a Constitution Bench of “first five judges in order of the seniority” to be set up on November 13 to hear Ms. Jaiswal’s petition.

But the Constitution Bench headed by the CJI Misra virtually pre-empted scheduled hearing on November 13 by expounding that,”No two-judge Bench can command the Chief Justice of India to constitute Benches to hear cases in SC”.

Thus the Saturday’s circular fortifies CJI’s role as administrative captain of Supreme Court and his absolute mastery over roster. Circular has clearly stated that any oral mentioning should now be made only before CJI’s court at 10.30 a.m.

The petition has been listed for a hearing before the Bench of Justice R.K. Agrawal, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar for November 13,2017.

Read the Circular @ Latest Laws:

Oral Mentioning Circular (Downloadable PDF)

Oral Mentioning Circular by Latest Laws Team on Scribd

Source - ptinews.com