'Things Will Settle Down; CJI Taken Decision With Good Intention': Justice Nazeer On Successive Adjournment Of Regular Matters On First Day Of New Order Of Hearing

Mr. Dave was appearing before the bench of Justices Abdul Nazeer, A. S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian when a majority out of the 10 final hearing matters listed had to be successively adjourned by 11:15 AM after advocates informed the bench that they needed time to prepare and get ready to argue.

Mr. Dave submitted before the bench, "The registrar must devise some way to indicate to the bar that the matters will proceed. Your Lordships will be free in another half an hour now"

Justice Nazeer: "Today is the first day. From tomorrow onwards, it will settle down. It will automatically settle down. Today, it is something new for us also. Just wait, it will settle down"

Another advocate: "We had to locate our papers after coming to court"

Mr. Dave: "Your Lordships, it is a common list for three days. Like this, everything will dissipate. Nobody will come, nobody will be ready, everybody will have some excuse or the other…The moment final hearing comes, the bar is reluctant. When it is SLPs, we are ready"

Justice Nazeer: "(in a lighter vein) The reason for that is very obvious. We were also lawyers for 20 years…"

Justice Nazeer continued to state, "The Hon'ble Chief Justice has taken this decision with some good intention"

Mr. Dave: "And the Bar welcomes it! But the bar should be prepared. We should be ready to go"

Justice Nazeer: "Just wait, it will settle down. Let us see how things take shape"

In what appears to be a move to prioritise final hearing matters, Chief Justice of India UU Lalit has introduced a change in the order of hearing of cases on non-miscellaneous days (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday).

As per the causelist published for August 30, regular hearing matters will be taken in the morning itself. The miscellaneous after notice matters will be taken during the post-lunch session.

For the uninitiated, miscellaneous days in Supreme Court are Mondays and Fridays, where the fresh petitions are listed for admission hearings. The other days are meant for final hearing matters (called non-miscellaneous days, or NMD in SC lawyers' parlance). However, certain fresh matters after notice are listed for consideration on NMDs as well.

The norm till now was to hear the miscellaneous matters first and the regular hearing matters after that. This very often fresh matters take up the Court's time even on NMDs, leaving less time for regular hearing matters, which are taken up late, or not taken up at all.

"Regular hearing matters will be listed before this court and will be taken up in the first half of the day i.e. 10.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. in the second half, division bench will re-assemble to take up miscellaneous and after notice matters," the causelist stated.

The change introduced by CJI Lalit will ensure that final hearing matters are taken up and that they will get adequate time at least till 1 PM for hearing.

Many Supreme Court lawyers have commented that this is a positive change.