CJI planning mechanism to ensure cases taken up within 4 days of filing

NEW DELHI: In a bid to cut the unnecessary time consumed while oral mentioning of the cases by lawyers every morning in the Supreme Court, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Wednesday said he is devising a mechanism to do away with the process and would ensure automatic listing of a fresh case within four days of filing.

He also said that going forward, all mentioning should be made before the Registrar.

A mentioning is a process in which a lawyer or a litigant seeking an urgent hearing or relief in his case after filing the petition mentions the matter for listing before a bench headed by the CJI.
Gogoi said that if a matter cannot wait for four days, then lawyers can mention their petitions for urgent listing before the apex court registrar.

“We are working on a system in which a matter after filing automatically comes up for hearing within four days. If the matter can’t wait for four days then you (lawyers) all can mention your case before the registrar for urgent listing. Then we will look into the petition. We are working on that system,” the CJI said.

His observation came while hearing a oral mentioning by the lawyer who requested the CJI for an early listing.

This is not the first time the CJI has advised lawyers to cut down oral mentioning and keep in mind that only absolutely urgent cases are brought before him. This practice usually takes 30-40 minutes of the CJI’s court every day.

Soon after he took over as CJI in October last year, he urged lawyers that the court cannot be seen to be wasting time when hundreds of death penalty cases are waiting for years to be heard.