'Only CJI Can Assign Cases' : Supreme Court Bench Unhappy With Another Bench Assigning A Case To It

The Supreme Court on Monday witnessed a rare sight of one bench openly expressing its disapproval of another bench assigning a case to it. The well established practice of the Court is that the Chief Justice of India assigns cases to benches exercising the powers of "master of roster". A bench led by a puisne judge does not direct that a case should be listed before another bench.A departure from this practice miffed a bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath. The genesis of the issue is an order passed by a bench comprising Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar on February 27, directing that a case be listed before a bench led by Justice BR Gavai.“Let the present application be placed before a bench presided over by Justice BR Gavai at the earliest", Justice Shah's bench had ordered in February purportedly due to the reason that the case was listed once before Justice Gavai's bench on an earlier occasion.When the matter came before Justice Gavai's bench, the bench took exception to a coordinate bench assigning a case to it. “If a particular bench in a particular situation finds that a matter needs to be placed before another bench, it is required to direct the matter to be placed before the Chief Justice for obtaining appropriate orders", Justice Gavai's bench recorded disapproval of the listing ordered by the other bench. Justice Gavai also noted that no effective order was passed when the case was listed before his bench in September 2022.Justice Gavai also explained, "it is a normal practice of this Court that the matter follows a judge who is part of the Bench which has passed an effective order". Noting that the only effective order passed in the present proceedings was by a bench comprising Justice AM Khanwilkar(since retired) and Justice CT Ravikumar, Justice Gavai's bench ordered: “Since an effective order has been passed by the bench of which Justice CT Ravikumar was a member, the matter should have followed the bench of which he is a part. In that view, we find it appropriate to direct the registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice for obtaining appropriate orders.”Case : ORRIS INFRASTRUCTURE PRIVATE LIMITED vs MANOJ AGGARWAL & ORS. Civil Appeal No(s). 5132/20212023 LiveLaw (SC) 182Supreme Court Practice and Procedure - If a particular bench in a particular situation finds that a matter needs to be placed before another bench, it is required to direct the matter to be placed before the Chief Justice for obtaining appropriate ordersSupreme Court Practice and Procedure - it is a normal practice of this Court that the matter follows a judge who is part of the Bench which has passed an effective order.Click Here To Read/Download Order

'Only CJI Can Assign Cases' : Supreme Court Bench Unhappy With Another Bench Assigning A Case To It

Awstika Das

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