NEW DELHI: A former SC judge and three retired judges of High Courts have written an open letter to the CJI asking him that all sensitive and important cases including pending ones, be dealt with by a Constitution Bench of the 5 senior most Judges of the Court.
This comes in wake of revolt by top four judges of the
Supreme Court against the functioning of Chief Justice of India
Dipak Misra in assigning of cases,.
The letter has been written by former SC judge PB Sawant, former Delhi HC Chief Justice A.P. Shah, Justice K. Chandru, former
Judge of Madras High Court and Justice H. Suresh, former Bombay HC judge.
The retired judges have expressed grave concern that cases are not being allocated in a proper manner in SC and are being allocated arbitrarily to particular designated benches, often headed by junior judges, in an arbitrary manner.
"We agree with the four Judges that though the
Chief Justice of India is the master of roster and can designate benches for allocation of work, this does not mean that it can be done in an arbitrary manner such that, sensitive and important cases are sent to hand picked benches of junior judges by the Chief Justice," they said.
"This issue needs to be resolved and clear rules and norms must be laid down for allocation of benches and distribution of cases, which are rational, fair and transparent. This must be done immediately to restore public confidence in the judiciary and in the Supreme Court," the letter said.
" However till that is done, it is important that all sensitive and important cases including pending ones, be dealt with by a Constitution Bench of the 5 senior most Judges of this Court. Only such measures would assure the people that the Supreme Court is functioning in a fair and transparent manner and that the power of the Chief Justice as master of roster is not being misused to achieve a particular result in important and sensitive cases. We therefore urge you to take immediate steps in this regard," the letter said.
