Bengal polls

Left Front chairman Biman Bose has threatened to call a bandh if the situation deteriorates. On Wednesday, the day of scrutiny of nomination, clashes erupted in Balarampur of Purulia between BJP and Trinamool supporters in which 10 persons were injured.

TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee dismissed the allegations saying opposition parties have filed more candidates than in the past. is there. All power is trust and it has to be done for some public good.”

Dismissing the petition by Lucknow resident Ashok Pande, the SC bench headed by Misra on Wednesday asserted the primacy of CJI in work allocation and held: “In the allocation of cases and the constitution of benches, the Chief Justice has an exclusive prerogative. As a repository of constitutional trust, the Chief Justice is an institution in himself. The authority which is conferred upon the Chief Justice, it must be remembered, is vested in a high constitutional functionary”.

Reaffirming the unique position of the CJI as the head of the judicial institution, the court said, “The entrustment of functions to the Chief Justice as the head of the institution, is with the purpose of securing the position of the SC as an independent safeguard for the preservation of personal liberty. There cannot be a presumption of mistrust”.

Pande, who filed the plea after the January press meet by the top four SC judges, also said in his petition that Constitution benches set up by the SC should comprise the five senior-most judges.

He asked for specialised benches to deal with public interest litigation, tax, criminal, land and service matters.

The court said: “To suggest that any judge would be more capable of deciding particular cases or that certain categories of cases should be assigned only to the senior-most among the Judges of the Supreme Court has no foundation in principle or precedent... ”