Seniority In Terms Of Appointment Has No Bearing On Which Cases A Judge Should Hear: SC [Read Judgment]

Reaffirming the superiority of the Chief Justice of India, the Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a Petition which questioned the unilateral power of the CJI to constitute benches “arbitrarily” and allocate work to different benches.In doing so, the Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud also emphasized on the fact that seniority in terms of appointment had no bearing on the sort of cases that a Judge should hear.The petitionThe Court was hearing a Petition filed by Lucknow based lawyer, Mr. Ashok Pande, against whom contempt proceedings had earlier been initiated by the Allahabad High Court for making allegations against several High Court Judges.Mr. Pande was, in August, 2016, awarded imprisonment of three months, along with a fine of Rs. 2,000. He had initially been issued a contempt notice after he cast aspersions on Justice A.P. Sahi for an interim order passed by him on a Petition filed by Mr. Pande’s daughter. Thereafter, Mr. Pande had also challenged the authority of the Chief Justice of the High Court for nominating the Bench for hearing the contempt proceedings initiated against him.Thereafter, pursuant to the press conference held by the four senior-most Supreme Court Judges, he had now sought framing of Rules for constituting Benches and allotting jurisdiction to different Benches in the Supreme Court and the High Courts.He had further demanded that Constitution Benches constituted by the Apex Court comprise of five senior-most judges, and that three-judge Benches must comprise the three senior most judges. Besides, he had sought bifurcation of the Court into what he described as a “Supreme criminal court”, with similar divisions to hear PIL, tax, service, land disputes and miscellaneous matters.The Court, at the outset, rapped Mr. Pande for casting aspersions against the Allahabad High Court bench which was assigned with the hearing of the contempt proceedings against him. It noted that such allegations were "unwarranted", observing, "Significantly, the correctness of an order passed by the High Court in the contempt proceedings initiated against the petitioner is not in question in the present proceedings. If the petitioner was aggrieved by a judicial order of the High Court, remedies were available to him under Article 136. As a member of the Bar, the petitioner should know better than to question the conduct of a judicial proceeding before the High Court in a writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution. This is yet another instance of reckless allegations being leveled against judges of the High Court in a proceeding where the correctness of the orders passed by the High Court is not in issue; necessary parties to that proceeding are not before the court; and though the legality of a judicial order cannot be questioned in an original proceeding under Article 32."CJI's exclusive prerogative The Court then examined the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 and several precedents to emphasize on the power wielded by the CJI to assign cases, observing, "In view of this binding elucidation of the authority of the Chief Justice of India, the relief which the petitioner seeks is manifestly misconceived. For one thing, it is a well-settled principle that no mandamus can issue to direct a body or authority which is vested with a rulemaking power to make rules or to make them in a particular manner. The Supreme Court has been authorized under Article 145 to frame rules of procedure. A mandamus of nature sought cannot be issued."It, therefore, opined that constitution of benches and assignment of cases was "exclusively in the domain of the prerogative powers of the Chief Justice". Listing matters before senior-most judgesThe Court further rejected the suggestion for the listing of Constitution Bench matters before the senior-most judges, observing that this would "intrude into the exclusive duty and authority of the Chief Justice to constitute benches and to allocate cases to them". It explained, "Seniority in terms of appointment has no bearing on which cases a Judge should hear. It is a settled position that a judgment delivered by a Judge speaks for the court (except in the case of a concurring or dissenting opinion)......Appointment to the Supreme Court is conditioned upon the fulfillment of the qualifications prescribed for the holding of that office under Article 124(3). Once appointed, every Judge of the Court is entitled to and in fact, duty bound, to hear such cases as are assigned by the Chief Justice......To suggest that any Judge would be more capable of deciding particular cases or that certain categories of cases should be assigned only to the senior-most among the Judges of the Supreme Court has no foundation in principle or precedent. To hold otherwise would be to cast a reflection on the competence and ability of other judges to deal with all cases assigned by the Chief Justice notwithstanding the fact that they have fulfilled the...

Seniority In Terms Of Appointment Has No Bearing On Which Cases A Judge Should Hear: SC [Read Judgment]

Apoorva Mandhani

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