New Delhi: Two days after Chief Justice of India (CJI) U.U. Lalit asked the Supreme Court’s registry for an explanation on why a ‘ready’ case was not listed for over a year, another apex court judge pulled up the registry for the same reason and warned of “strict action”.
According to LiveLaw, Justice Ajay Rastogi took strong exception to the registry not listing the matter despite the bench – of which he was part – issuing a specific order to that effect.
“Once a date is passed by this court for listing, the Registry has no business changing it,” Justice Rastogi said after it was brought to his notice by the counsel of one of the parties involved in the matter. The lawyer in question had told Justice Rastogi that despite repeated efforts and even after the approval of the bench, the matter had not been listed.
At this point, Justice Rastogi said, “This time I am telling you very clearly. Next time this is brought to my notice that despite an order of the court, a matter has not been listed, I will take strict action. I will not permit any Registrar to have this discretion.”
While hoping that such a situation will not recur, he said, “The Registrar is not above our order. They are behaving as if they are running the court.”
He also apologised to the counsel who brought the issue to his notice. “We are so sorry that the matter was not listed. Let me check and take an explanation from the Registrar as to why it was not listed.”
This is not the first time that an apex court judge has come down heavily on its own registry, for either not listing or deleting matters which were ready to be heard. In August this year, Justice M.R. Shah pulled up the registry for deleting matters posted for a particular day.
“Who is he [registrar]? It is none of his business. We will decide…” Justice Shah had said.
On a separate occasion, CJI-designate Justice Chandrachud too had reacted angrily after the registry did not list a matter for hearing. “Why does the Registry delete matters? We read cases and come and they are deleted. Are we the judges or the registry? Tell them if they delete it, they can at least inform us,” Justice Chandrachud had said.
More recently, on November 1, CJI Lalit had said, “…we issue notice to the Registry to file an explanation why the matter was not listed before the court in a year and a half despite it had been ‘Ready’ to be listed. The Registry should also indicate whether any similar matters which were marked as ‘Ready’ but were not listed before the Court.”
The CJI had further added that all the details pertaining to such matters shall be furnished along with an explanation and if any remedial steps had since then been taken. “Let the explanation be furnished on or before November 3,” he had ordered.