New Delhi: Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud Tuesday said that the Supreme Court should not be spread thin and there may be a thousand issues in the country that merit attention, but the apex court cannot render itself dysfunctional by hearing everything while hearing an intervention application (IA) concerning captive elephants in Kerala. The CJI stressed, “What is the role of the Supreme Court in the nation, not to deal with micromanagement of issues which arise all over the country”.
A bench led by CJI and comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra told senior advocate C U Singh, “Why don't you approach the high court? SC should not be spread thin...and this is not even a PIL, you are an intervenor…”.
Singh, who mentioned the matter before the bench, submitted that over 130 captive elephants in Kerala had died between 2018 to 2022. He said that till September 2023, 22 more recorded deaths have been there and pressed that it is a startlingly high rate. Singh said there is only one word, which is sickness and they are also not doing the postmortem, and elephants are being bought from Assam and Arunachal Pradesh directly in the teeth of the Wildlife Protection Act.
The Chief Justice said, “Go to the high court and tell them….it is an intervention not even a petition….look at this, it is PIL at its pristine best…..Anyone can intervene and start joining the matter, anybody can start joining the bandwagon”. A counsel said every year the moment the festival season in Kerala begins these IAs start coming before the court and seek to injunct the owners from using the elephants from being paraded in temple festivals, and urge the court to start an inquiry.
