CJI UU Lalit's productive 75-day tenure

Chief Justice of India UU Lalit is retiring on November 8. In his short yet meaningful tenure, CJI Lalit has made a great impact especially when it comes to showing urgency in hearing the cases and disposing of matters that were pending for years, writes ETV Bharat's Maitrie Jha.

New Delhi:The Chief Justice of India, UU Lalit's, short tenure of 75 days as the CJI is about to end on November 8. In his short yet meaningful tenure, CJI Lalit has dug out years-old cases and listed them before appropriate benches.

Often the benches sat late, heard the matters during lunch, took up urgent hearings of cases, and disposed of cases. More than 50 cases are listed before each court every day, all courts function on all days, and judges give in extra hours to finish all the matters listed before them.

Last week CJI Lalit-led bench sat even on Saturday, a non-working day for the court, to hear the Amrapali matter as it could not be heard due to various reasons on working days.

Many judges have often said in their speeches that their work is underestimated because of long vacations and fewer court hours compared to other professions but people fail to realise that judges work all day on cases and just because court closes doesn't mean their work ends.

But with CJI Lalit's tenure court hours turned hectic and long and the perception of easy hours changed. Constitution bench matters which lagged behind in the past are in full swing and matters are heard on a regular basis, many of them being disposed of.

Matters regarding reservation and electoral bonds which were crucial and sought for listing by advocates were finally listed and heard. In August, when CJI Lalit took over, there were 71,411 cases pending before the top court. By October, that number had slid to 69,461.

Many important matters still remain which will be heard by CJI Lalit but they are unlikely to conclude in the next 6 working days that remain in CJI Lalit's superannuation.

Matters like EVM should be without election symbol, special anti-corruption court in every district, a judicial charter for time-bound justice, appointment in law commission, ban on freebies promised by political parties, plea seeking minority status for Hindus are all scheduled to be listed before CJI Lalit's bench after vacation.

In most of these matters, only interim directions can be passed for now as the cases are nowhere close to concluding arguments. Matters will be allotted to different benches thereafter as per the CJI's discretion.

When former CJI NV Ramana was retiring, CJI Lalit had said in his speech that it would be difficult for him to attain popularity like Justice Ramana. But his tenure will be remembered as one of the most productive of the last three CJIs.

CJI Lalit listed cases, constituted constitution benches to function all throughout the year, and utilised the court's limited working hours to the maximum.