CJI Dipak Misra has prepared a roster and put it up on the Supreme Court of India’s website. This is the first time in the Supreme Court’s history that a roster for Supreme Court judges has been made public.
The new roster which lists subject/category wise distribution of matters amongst all the benches, will come into effect from Feburary 5 and continue until otherwise notified by the CJI.
As per the roster put out in public domain, the Chief justice of India will hear all Public Interest Litigations; election, criminal, and social justice cases; and cases relating to the appointment of constitutional functionaries.
“Drawing up of the roster by the CJI is not anything new. CJI Misra has only made it public. I think it should not be made public,” said former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan.
“This seems to be some sort of a settlement move by the CJI Misra with the four senior judges of the court who have a difference with him over work allocation. The demand of the four judges is that CJI should be just, fair and reasonable in allocating a case”, added Balakrishnan.
Last week, the four senior judges of the Supreme Court who attacked the CJI for what they see as his arbitrary manner of work allocation, suggested that a committee of future CJIs – Justices R Gogoi, SA Bobde, NV Ramana, UU Lalit and DY Chandrachud — be set up to help frame rules for work allocation in the top court.