Supreme Court's new roster system for judges announced, into effect from July 2

NEW DELHI: With just a week for the Supreme Court to resume its work in full swing after six-week long summer vacation, the new roster system was announced detailing the allocation of cases amongst the judges. The new roster will be applicable from July 2.

With a vacancy created after Justice Chelameswar's retirement, the Roster has now been revised.

As per the new roster system, the bench headed by CJI will continue to hear all the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) cases, social justice matters, election matters, Habeas Corpus and Contempt of Court matters.

Justice Gogoi, who now becomes the second most senior Judge of the Supreme Court and will deal with cases relating to labour laws, indirect taxation and personal Laws among other things.

Earlier, Justice J Chelameswar, who retired two days ago was adjudicating the cases pertaining to labour, taxation, land disputes, eviction cases and consumer protection cases, general cases involving financial transactions, and water laws.

Justice Madan Lokur has been allocated matters which include cases relating to service, social justice, personal laws, land acquisition, mines and minerals, consumer protection and armed and para-military forces. Justice Lokur will also hear matters dealing with ecological imbalance, protection and conservation of forests, protection of wild life, felling of trees and underground water levels.

Justice Kurian Joseph bench has been assigned cases of labour laws, rent Act, family laws, contempt of court and personal law. He will also hear matters related to religious and charitable endowments, besides all land laws and agriculture tenancies.

The newest member of the Supreme Court Collegium, Justice AK Sikri will look into cases of direct and indirect taxes, election and criminal matters, personal law, contempt of court, ordinary civil cases and appointment of law officers. Besides these top five judges, the new roster also spells out matters to be heard by six other judges heading benches.

The Roster of Supreme Court judges came into public domain from February this year in the wake of the press conference held by the then four most senior Judges raising their concern over the allocation of cases by Chief Justice Dipak Misra in the apex court. The four most senior judges had, in the letter which they released to media on January 12, had noted that the CJI was indeed the master of the roster, but that this was not a recognition of any superior authority, legal or factual of the chief justice over his colleagues. Ends.