Supreme Court Registry Faces Court's Ire Again For Deleting Case From List; Justice Chandrachud Asks "Is Registry The Judge?"

On Monday, Supreme Court Judge, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud expressed displeasure upon being apprised that the Supreme Court Registry has deleted a matter, that was listed, from the Monday Board.

As Item No. 2 was heard, the Bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and A.S. Bopanna called out Item No. 3, only to be informed by the Court Master that the matter had been deleted by the Registry.

Bemused, Justice Chandrachud remarked -

"Judge hum hain ya registry hain (Are we the judge or the Registry?). Haadh hoti hain, agar delete kare toh bole kiyu delete kar rahe hain. (This is too much, if they are deleting they should at least tell us why they are deleting it from the board?)"

He was clearly perturbed to note -

"We read matters and come and then we are told that they are deleted by the Registry"

When the matter was called out, the Bench was actually inclined to issue notice in Item No. 3 and tag it with similar matters.

He asked the Court Master to inform the Registry that they should inform Justice Chandrachud by afternoon why the matter was deleted.

"...Ask them to tell by afternoon, why was it deleted."

Recently, Justice M.R. had also castigated the Registry for the practice of deleting matters posted for any particular day. He had commented -

"Who is he (the Registrar) to decide? It is none of his business. We will decide! They say, 'Zyada matters hain toh delete kar dete hain'? Yeh nahi chalega! (They say, 'There are excess matters so we will delete it'? That is not how it works!)...Who is he to decide it is an excess matter? I am the master!"