Source: The Indian Express 

Introduction 

The Supreme Court has been prioritizing Special Leave Petitions over the last month. The Court has been hearing these cases for three days of the workweek and has kept only Mondays and Fridays for fresh cases.  

• The above is part of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna’s plan to address a large backlog of cases in the top Court.  

What is the Weekly Case Schedule Floated by the new Chief Justice? 

• There is a huge pendency of cases in the Supreme Court and the current CJI Sanjiv Khanna has come up with a strategy to reduce the same. 
• Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna issued a circular on the administrative side saying “after notice miscellaneous matters” would be heard on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. 
  • “After notice miscellaneous matters” are those cases in which Court issues “notice” to the other party in a “fresh matter” 
• Also, on Wednesdays and Thursdays no regular hearing matter shall be listed till further orders.  
  • A case becomes “regular hearing matter” after it has been “admitted”. 
• “After notice miscellaneous matters” require the court to simply decide whether to admit or dismiss an appeal. This is often done quickly, in brief hearings. 
• The above step has been adopted in view of more than 82,000 cases pending in Supreme Court currently. 

What has been the Approach Adopted by the other CJIs to Tackle Pendency of Cases?

• The predecessors of CJI Khanna have focused on tackling cases that need regular hearings and Constitution bench hearings rather than prioritizing admission stage cases. 
• CJI Chandrachud adopted a plan whereby Supreme Court heard regular hearing matters on Wednesday and Thursdays and no “after notice miscellaneous matters” were listed on these two days. 
• Both CJI Chandrachud and CJI UU Lalit focused on disposing off the long pending constitutional matters. 
• Justice Chandrachud in his farewell speech said that during his tenure the pendency of cases fell from 26,682 to 22,000.

What is the Registry of Supreme Court? 

• Behind the public facing functions of the Supreme Court there is administrative machinery of the Court i.e. the “Registry”. 
• The public facing functions include conducting hearings, writing (and delivering) judgments and making public appearances. 
• The Supreme Court Registry has two wings- the administration and the judicial. 
• Each of these are divided into various divisions. 
• Each division is headed by a Registrar and the Registry as a whole is led by the Secretary General who is the highest administrative officer in the Supreme Court, and reports to the CJI. 

What is the Journey of Cases in Supreme Court? 

• The following are the steps for filing a case in the Supreme Court: 
  • Filing by the AOR: Typically, an Advocate-on-Record (AOR) files a case along with the required supporting documents either at the filing counter or through the court’s e-filing portal. 
  • Verification by the dealing assistant:  
    • The case goes to a “dealing assistant” in a part of the court that is known to advocates as “Section 1B”. 
    • The assistant verifies the identity of the AoR and whether they have been granted power of attorney by the client through a signed vakalatnama, and generates a permanent “diary number” for the case. 
  • Petition and supporting documents scrutinized for defects: 
    • The petition and supporting documents are scrutinised for any defects such as incorrect party information, absence of signatures, or wrong format. 
    • According to a 2018 circular by the Supreme Court defects must be cured within 90 days. 
    • In such cases, both the assistant and a superior officer of the Registry checks the re-filed case to ensure the defects have been cured. 
  • Listing of the case: 
    • Following the verification the case si registered and sent to the listing department. 
    • Once a case is listed it comes up before the Bench as a “fresh” matter. 
    • As per SC rules, these cases have been heard on Mondays and Fridays for decades now, which are known as “Miscellaneous days”. 
    • If the case is not immediately dismissed it sends a “notice” to the other party seeking a reply to the case against them. 
    • The case is then known as an “after notice miscellaneous matter”. 
    • Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are also referred to as “non-miscellaneous days”   

Conclusion 

The pendency of cases is a serious problem that the Supreme Court has dealt with for a long period of time. Different Chief Justices have tried to tackle this problem in their own way. The current CJI Sanjiv Khanna has focused on prioritizing cases at the admission stage itself. This is a contrary approach to his predecessors who focused more on Constitution bench hearings and the regulsar hearings.