SC: Frivolous cases making institution dysfunctional

The Supreme Court Tuesday said that “frivolous” cases being filed before it are consuming most of its time, making the institution dysfunctional and delaying matters of national importance.

The remarks of the special bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah came while hearing an application related to a consumer dispute.

The bench said that the matter has already been disposed of and final order passed but the petitioner has come up again with an application on a petty issue.

“We cannot pass another order in an already disposed of matter. We should not be hearing you. Actually, this is how the Supreme Court is becoming dysfunctional. Judges have to spend their important time to go through these files before the start of the day,” Justice Chandrachud said.

He said that judges should be able to spend time on matters of national importance, which are serious matters.

“Today, when we were going through listed cases, we found that 95 per cent of the cases are frivolous. Yesterday, I had to finalise the order in the suo motu matter on Covid management, which is a matter of national importance but could not upload it because I had to go through the files listed for today,” he said.

The bench which refused to entertain the application said, “Frivolous matters are making the institution dysfunctional. These matters waste important time of the court, which could have been spent on serious matters, pan-india matters”.