CJI must ensure unity among judges, says AG
NEW DELHI: Attorney general KK Venugopal, the country’s top legal officer, said on Friday that the Chief Justice of India (CJI)’s position as Master of the Roster was not meant to just allocate cases to various benches, but was also essential for ensuring unity in the top judiciary.
Venugopal’s remarks came in response to a suggestion by former law minister and senior advocate Shanti Bhushan that the CJI exercises his authority as Master of the Roster in consultation with other senior judges in the Supreme Court collegium. The collegium comprises the five senior-most SC judges and recommends appointments to the higher judiciary.
“This is not like the appointment of judges. This very exercise (allocation of cases) is different from selecting judges for elevation.This requires decisions on several aspects and that is not something that five or all of them (judges) can sit and thrash out,” the AG told a bench of justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan.
Venugopal appeared before the bench in response to the judges’ request asking him to assist in the case. The court had on April 13 said it would like to hear the AG on the matter. According to a petition by Bhushan, the CJI cannot unilaterally mark “sensitive” cases on his own but the CJI-led collegium should have a say in the matter.
Allocation of cases was the key reason for four judges — justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph — to have gone public with their grievances over the way the top court was being administered by CJI Dipak Misra.
After Venugopal completed his arguments, the bench reserved its verdict on Bhushan’s petition.
The matter was heard for over an hour.
“Procedural difficulties can always be solved, but we have to look into our constitutional position,” the bench said after the hearing ended.