Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi Wednesday brought radical change to the way cases have been mentioned for urgent hearing, saying that only matters like the execution of death penalty and eviction would be treated as urgent till "parameters" are laid down for them.
Justice Gogoi, who was administered the oath as 46th CJI by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the forenoon, assembled with Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph at 12.05 PM in the packed CJI's courtroom and greeted lawyers with a smile.
Moments after settling at the dais, the CJI, the first from north-east India, broke the news for the lawyers, waiting in the queue to mention cases for urgent hearing. "No mentioning. We will work out the parameters then we will see as to how mentioning will be done."
The CJI further said: "If somebody is going to be hanged or evicted tomorrow then we can understand (the urgency). Otherwise, there will be no mentioning."
Lawyer Mathews Nedumpara, while trying to mention a matter, congratulated the CJI on becoming "captain of the judiciary".
But, the lawyer's submission was cut short by Justice Gogoi, who said, "Let us get back to the work. Mr Nedumpara, this is not the place for all this. We don't need all this. You are here to mention? No mentioning till parameters are worked out".
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who was next in line, mentioned an interim plea for urgent hearing saying that some Rohingyas were on the verge of being deported to Mayanmar.
The bench said it would first peruse the application and then decide about the listing.
"Call out the cases," the CJI ordered the court staff which led lawyers, standing in the queue to mention cases, to exit the courtroom in hurry.
The CJI-led bench, during the hearing, also refused to grant pass over in a matter and asked the lawyer concerned to argue the case instead.
Earlier, the mentioning of cases used to continue for 20 to 30 minutes everyday before the bench headed by then CJI Dipak Misra, who demitted office on October 2.
Justice Gogoi, later in the day, came out with a new roster allocating cases to various benches, and decided that the Public Interest Litigations (PILs) will be heard by him.
The new roster also made clear that a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur who is next in seniority to him, would also hear PILs earmarked by the CJI.
Justice Gogoi will have a tenure of a little over 13 months and would retire on November 17, 2019.