Supreme Court sets a record by hearing 592 new cases on the first day of CJI UU Lalit
Justice Lalit has said that he would try, that 1 constitutional bench of the top court functioned throughout the year.
The first day of CJI UU Lalit in the Supreme Court saw a record 592 fresh cases being heard. This has spiked anticipation of seeing several high-profile, sensitive cases being resurrected after a few years.
Of the 900-odd cases listed on Monday, 592 cases were being heard for the first time after they were filed at different times in the last year.
Many of these new matters were public interest litigations (PILs) on issues such as the Rafale deal to Karnataka’s hijab ban row and awaited preliminary hearings despite repeated requests.
Addressing some lawyers present in the top court of the country, CJI Lalit said that by Thursday he would introduce a new transparent system focused on hearing urgent cases. Adding that the focus of the top court under his leadership will be clearing pendency and hearing the maximum possible number of cases every day.
During the tenure of the last CJI Ramana, the main complaint about former CJI Ramana’s tenure pertained to the non-listing of cases, and lack of clarity on how the court registry selected the kind of cases that were listed out of turn. Even on his last day, he expressed regret for not being able to handle this situation properly.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta and senior counsel Dushyant Dave, on their part, invited the new CJI, guaranteeing the help of the bar in making his undertakings effective.
The Constitution benches on Tuesday will be led by CJI Lalit and justice Indira Banerjee respectively. These five-judge seats will take up cases that incorporate difficulties to the legitimacy of Andhra Pradesh’s legislation announcing all individuals from the Muslim community in the state as a part of the “backward classes”, granting minority status to Sikh students in Punjab, and reservation to the economically weaker section (EWS), among others.
While there was no Constitution bench hearing during the whole 16-month residency of his predecessor Justice Ramana, CJI Lalit has begun his stretch with the hearing of critical cases.
One more fascinating case before the Constitution seat looks for a legitimate judgement on whether the number of judges offering an opinion should matter or the strength of the bench ought to hold the field. For instance, when five appointed judges decide an issue unanimously, can this judgement at any point be overruled by a 4-3 majority because the strength of the last bench is of seven appointed authorities?
Senior advocate and president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Vikas Singh, complimented the new CJI over the means taken to list the issues. “We are happy to note that more than 900 matters have been listed and we are hopeful that very soon, the backlog of matters required to be listed are cleared soon,” Singh wrote in a letter to justice Lalit.
