National courts of appeal not possible or desirable: Centre

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court asked the Centre on Tuesday to explore the possibility of having national courts of appeal in four regions across the country even as the government opposed the idea saying it was neither possible nor desirable.

Such courts, if established, would decide appeals arising out of high court verdicts — a function performed exclusively by the Supreme Court at present. The proposed courts would be below the Supreme Court and above high courts. Under the present system, litigants go directly to the top court against decisions of a high court, leading to piling up of 60,000-odd cases in the Supreme Court.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur asked attorney general Mukul Rohatgi to submit his proposed arguments on the move, which the top law officer said would lower the Supreme Court’s dignity and take away an individual’s constitutional right to approach the apex court.

There is an apparent change in the stance of the Supreme Court, which has consistently rejected demands to set up regional benches. It asked senior advocate KK Venugopal, assisting the bench as a “friend of court”, to place his suggestions before the bench which shall frame issues on April 4 and refer the matter to a constitution bench.

“We want to initiate a debate, though the government does not support it. Today 98% of our time is wasted reading files relating to traffic offences or cheque-bounce cases. We might dismiss them finally, but we still have to give our time,” the CJI told Rohatgi, who said the top court must not entertain every appeal filed before it.

We want to initiate a debate on this, though the government does not support it. Today, 98% of our time is wasted in reading files related to traffic offences or chequebounce cases. We might dismiss them finally, but we still have to give our time.

TS THAKUR, Chief Justice of India