CJI pulls up lawyer who objected to SC preference for fancy constitutional matters with no bearing on commoners' lives

The Chief Justice told advocate Mathews Nedumpara, “I just want to tell you that you don’t seem to know what constitutional bench matters are….”, writes Sumit Saxena.

New Delhi:The Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Friday slammed an advocate, who wrote an email to the apex court registry complaining that these days the apex court is wasting time hearing constitution bench matters and it is not hearing matters affecting the common man.

The Chief Justice told advocate Mathews Nedumpara, “I just want to tell you that you don’t seem to know what constitutional bench matters are….”. However, Nedumpara insisted that matters affecting the common man are also important. The Chief Justice, who appeared to be a bit angered with Nedumpara’s interruption, said, “one second, listen to me. When I am talking, do not interrupt. You seem to be ignorant, ignorant of what constitution bench matters are. Constitution bench matters also involve some of them and also interpretation of the Constitution. You may think Article 370 petitions are not relevant, I don’t think the government or petitioners feel that way….”.

The Chief Justice told the advocate that all constitution bench matters are not necessarily related to the interpretation of the Constitution, and told him if he were to be in the court day before yesterday, "you would have found we were dealing with a matter which would affect the livelihood of hundreds and thousands of drivers across the country….”.

The bench, also comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said the issue was that whether a person who holds a light motor vehicle licence can drive a commercial vehicle and the court will come to a conclusion one way or the other on merits.

The Chief Justice told the advocate to disabuse his mind that the apex court is only dealing “with some fancy constitutional matters having no bearing on lives of ordinary people”. “We passed a detailed order asking the Attorney General to take instructions that it will have an impact on the social sector, which means livelihood of large numbers of small drivers….so please disabuse yourself of….”, said the Chief Justice.

Nedumpara said he is not against court hearing matters involving fundamental rights of the people and only insisting on court hearing matters of public interest.

The Chief Justice said, “Mr Nedumpara, even there you are wrong. In the Article 370 matter, we had a group of intervenors who came and addressed us from the valley….we have been hearing the voice of the nation….”. After briefly hearing Nedumpara, the bench moved on to the next matter.