Notice on SC as Court of Appeal

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre seeking response on the plea to make the apex court as National Court of Appeal to decide only constitutional issues with four regional Benches.

A Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Uday Lalit after hearing advocates V. Vasanthakumar in person and advocate Ram Sankar sought the assistance of the Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to decide this important issue and also appointed senior advocates K.K. Venugopal and former law minister and senior advocates Salman Khurshid to render assistance in this case.

In his writ petition Mr. Vasanthakumar said his representation to the government was rejected by the Centre saying such a national court of appeal is not feasible.

The order dated December 3, 2014 said “the idea of setting up separate National Court of Appeal or setting up of Benches of the Supreme Court in other parts of the country was taken up by the Central Government. The Chief Justice of India on several occasions in the past and the successive Chief Justices have, however been consistently opposed to the setting up of such benches. The Attorney General was also consulted in the matter and he opined that the amendment to Article 130 is impermissible as this would change the Constitution of the Supreme Court completely. The petitioner said since the Centre had not considered the representation properly, the order should be set aside.

The petitioner submitted that the apex Court exercises original jurisdiction in matters arising between the Union and its component States and between the States inter se.