'About 130 Three-Judge Bench Matters Pending': Justice Chandrachud Explains Reason For Changing Sequence Of Hearing

During the course of hearing a matter, on Thursday, Supreme Court Judge, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, indicated the reason behind the listing of 3-Judge Bench matters in the morning session on the non-miscellaneous days (NMD) i.e., Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Recently CJI, U.U. Lalit, has introduced reform in the order of hearing of cases on NMD. Regular hearing matters are now taken up in the morning and the second half of the day is dedicated to hearing of miscellaneous matters. Previously, the norm was to hear miscellaneous matters first and then the regular matters. As a consequence, the regular matters were overlooked, as the miscellaneous hearing consumed the better part of the day.

Interestingly, now the regular matters listed for hearing in the first half of NMD are all 3-Judge Bench matters. It appears that it is a conscious decision which stems from the awareness of the pendency of about 130 Three-Judge bench matters pending before the Apex Court. Indicating the same Justice Chandrachud stated that the CJI and the other judges of the Supreme Court collectively decided to adopt this process in order to dispose of the 3-Judge Bench matters on priority.

"There are about 130 Three-Judge Bench matters which are pending. Hon'ble CJI and we thought that at least these matters can be disposed of on priority. So in the first half of the day we have the 3-Judge Bench matters listed."