In open letter to CJI, senior advocate warns of need to maintain respect for SC

Former Supreme Court bar association president and senior advocate Dushyant Dave has written an open letter to the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud to point out how certain sensitive cases in which “notices have been issued have been taken away from those benches and listed before other benches despite the first composition of the bench being available".

Dave said matters listed especially before courts 2, 4, 6 and 7 have been shifted out and listed before other benches with a disregard for the rules, the Handbook of Practice and Office Procedure and established Practice and Convention. He also highlighted that seniority of the first coram (first composition of the bench) was being ignored.

Court 2 is headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, court 4 by Justice BR Gavai, court 6 by Justice Aniruddha Bose and court 7 by Justice AS Bopanna.

He pointed out that all the matters being shifted to other benches include sensitive matters involving human rights, freedom of speech, democracy and functioning of statutory and Constitutional institutions.

Dave lamented that he was forced to write the letter as several attempts by him and a few other lawyers to meet the CJI had not yielded any result despite an appointment having been sought months ago by a senior advocate.

“Emails sent to the Registrar by the Advocates on Record (AoRs) making serious grievance about it have not been responded. Perhaps to avoid such appeals being filed, the Registrars are refusing anything in writing,” stated Dave in the letter.

He pointed out that the CJI, being the master of the roster, alone has the prerogative to constitute a bench and allocate cases to the benches so constituted and, in that sense, the power of the CJI as master of the roster was both unique and extraordinary.

“This is an extraordinary power to upset the roster and to ‘pick and choose’ and allocate and assign any appeal or cause or matter to any judge or judges of the court. However, the Chief Justice can only exercise the power as per the practice, and in case the coram as per roster is available. The Chief Justice cannot exercise power to take away any case before the available coram and place it before another,” wrote Dave.

The senior lawyer said Justice Chandrachud’s appointment as top judge had created “strong hopes in the minds of citizens that under your leadership, the Supreme Court of India will rise to greater heights, the march towards which has somehow paused for some time earlier. The scars caused on account of such improprieties in the past few years on justice delivery have not healed as yet”.

“Sir, this does not augur well for the Institution of the Supreme Court of India under your Leadership. The Institution is highly respected by all. That respect must continue forever, in all respects. I would therefore urge you to look into this immediately and take corrective measures,” said Dave while ending the letter.

In November, the AoR for the Tamil Nadu vigilance director had written to the Supreme Court registry objecting to the re-assignment of the matter to another bench. On 5 December, Justice Kaul, too, spoke up about the removal of the judges' appointment matter from his bench.