CJI Gogoi expresses displeasure over Rafale review plea ‘defects’
NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi on Friday took exception to lawyers blaming the Supreme Court registry for delaying hearings in their cases, saying the advocates themselves do not take remedial measures such as removing the defects in their petitions to make them listing-ready.
Referring to an application for modification of its judgment in the Rafale case, Gogoi said: “When that application was filed there was so much of wide publicity. But where is the application now? It’s lying in the registry for more than a month and defects pointed out by the officials have not yet been cured.”
In December, the apex court dismissing petitions seeking a court-monitored probe into the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets by the Indian government. The court said there was no reason to doubt that due process had been followed in the purchase.
On Friday, the CJI asked the registrar, responsible for listing cases for hearing, about the status of the application seeking a modification of the ruling.
On being told it was the application that required defects to be removed, the CJI asked for details of the petitioner. The registrar provided him with the information, but could not give the advocate’s name. “Even that side (lawyers) is not innocent,” the CJI quipped.
Later, the CJI asked the registrar to be present in his courtroom everyday for the next 15 days and get to know the problems that lawyers had in getting their matters listed. “It seems that the right cases are not getting listed and those which should not are making it to the list,” the CJI told the registrar.
Since Gogoi took over as the CJI in November, he has expressed his desire to do away with mentioning, a procedure under which lawyers can make a personal request to the CJI to list their matters on an urgent basis. This practice is resorted to if the registry does not accept their plea for an early hearing and cases get stuck on technical grounds. According to the CJI, daily mentioning is a waste of judicial time.