New Delhi: Former Supreme Court Bar Association(SCBA) president and senior advocate Dushyant Dave Wednesday has written to Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud expressing anguish over the listing of sensitive cases pending before the Supreme Court.
Dave, in the letter, said that he has personally come across a number of cases listed before various benches of the apex court upon first listing and/ or in which notice has been issued, being taken away from those benches and listed before other benches.
Dave said despite the first coram being available the matters are being listed before a bench in which second coram presides. “Matters listed before Court No. 2, 4, 6, 7 amongst others have been shifted out and listed before other Hon’ble Benches in clear disregard of the Rules, the Handbook on Practice and Office Procedure referred above and established Practice and Convention”, said the letter.
The letter said curiously, that the seniority of the first coram is also being ignored in doing so and our attention is also been drawn by esteemed colleagues at the Bar, seniors, and Advocate on Record (AoRs), about various cases in which they have appeared in the first instance on numerous occasions, later the matters being listed before different benches.
“It would not be proper for me to enumerate these matters as many of them are pending. But it would not be out of place to mention that these matters include some sensitive matters involving human rights, freedom of speech, democracy, and functioning of statutory and constitutional institutions”, said the letter.
The letter highlighted the provision in the handbook on practice and procedure of the court which confers an extraordinary power on the CJI to upset the roster and to “pick and choose” and allocate and assign any appeal or cause or matter to any judge or judges of the court.
“However, the Chief Justice can only exercise the power as per the practice and in case the coram as per roaster is available the Chief Justice cannot exercise power to take away any case before the available coram and place it before another”, said the letter.
Dave said on CJI’s appointment, strong hopes were created in the minds of citizens that under his leadership, the Supreme Court of India will rise to greater heights, the march towards which has somehow paused for some time earlier. The scars caused on account of such improprieties in the past few years on justice delivery have not healed as yet, he said.
“I must place on regret that I have to take recourse to write this open letter as the efforts by some of us to meet you personally have not yielded any result, despite the appointment having been sought months ago by a senior and respected colleague for and on behalf of many of us”, said Dave.
“Sir, this does not augur well for the Institution of Supreme Court of India under your Leadership. The Institution is highly respected by all. That respect must continue forever, in all respects. I would therefore urge you to look into this immediately and take corrective measures”, said the letter.
On Tuesday, the apex court said it was surprised regarding the deletion of a matter connected with the delay in the appointment of judges in the high courts from its list of cases. A bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said, “I have not deleted it or expressed unwillingness to take it up. I am sure the Chief Justice of India is aware of it (deletion of the matter)”.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing a party, contended that the court should call for a report from the registry. Bhushan stressed that it is very strange that the matter got deleted despite a judicial order having fixed a date of hearing. Justice Kaul said, “Some things are left best unsaid. We will see…”.
