SC to hear plea against allocation of cases by CJI

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine a plea on whether the allocation of “sensitive and important cases” should be done by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) alone or by the collegium of five senior-most judges.

Asking Attorney General KK Venugopal to assist the court in hearing of the matter, a bench of Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan asked: “CJI is the master of roster, should we interpret it to mean collegium... would it be feasible?”

Observing that nearly one lakh cases come to the top court every year, Justice Sikri wondered if the collegium will sit for each and every case.

“Prima facie, it’s not a workable solution because that would mean the five judges would be required to sit every day or twice a week to allocate cases,” said the bench, adding that there should be a “selfgoverning mechanism”.

The observation came in the course of the hearing of the plea by former Law Minister and senior counsel Shanti Bhuhan seeking that the allocation of important and sensitive cases be done by the collegium of five senior-most judges and not by the CJI alone.

When senior advocate Dushyant Dave said “sensitive cases” like those which directly touch upon the very “survival of democracy” should not be left to the discretion of the CJI, the court told him: “What is sensitive for you may not be sensitive for another.”

Appearing for Shanti Bhushan, senior advocates Dave, Kapil Sibal and Prashant Bhushan said instances of arbitrary allocation of cases by CJI Dipak Misra has forced them to come with a “heavy heart” to the court.

The lawyers said their purpose was not to make personal allegations, adding: “Our concern is when Supreme Court Registry takes direction from the CJI for marking the case... power should be used correctly.”

Sibal said they were “troubled” and this is the highest court of law and “we must respect the institution”. “It’s not good for the institution.”

Justice Sikri said, “You are aggrieved by the manner of exercise of power by the CJI”. But the collegium does not seem to be the solution, because collegium will then have to sit every other day. If you can come up with some other suggestion, maybe we could consider.”

On Friday, the bench posted the matter for further hearing on April 27.

The Supreme Court also took umbrage when an attempt was made to raise before it the issue relating to the unprecedented January 12 press conference by the four senior-most judges, who had accused the CJI of arbitrarily allocating cases.

“We are not going to go into it. We are not concerned with it for many reasons and obvious reasons. Do not say all this. Do not bring it here,” the bench told senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who was representing Bhushan.

Prima facie, allocation of “sensitive and important cases” done by the collegium of five senior-most judges is not a workable solution because that would mean the five judges would be required to sit every day or twice a week to allocate cases: Justice Sikri