“The Temple Is Open Only For 24 Hours On November 5 And 6, We Have Fixed A Date, Don’t Rush”: CJI Gogoi On Sabarimala Review Petitions

As Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi nears the completion of his first month in office, his stern approach towards granting an urgent listing to matters upon being ‘mentioned’ continues.

On his very first day as the Chief Justice of India, he had asserted that the morning ‘mentioning’ ritual be confined to cases of extreme emergency, including those of demolition, eviction and death.

On Wednesday morning, the Chief Justice declined to hear at an earlier date the numerous review petitions filed against the much-talked about decision of the apex court of September 28 permitting menstruating women between the ages of 10 and 50 years to access the Sabarimala Temple.

“The temple is open only for 24 hours on November 5 and 6. We have fixed a date for after that (the petitions are scheduled to be heard on November 13 at 3 PM). Don’t rush”, stated Chief Justice Gogoi.

“We go back and read all these papers to see which cases need to be heard immediately. We have to separate the grain from the chaff”, observed the Chief Justice on Wednesday.

Earlier, on Monday, when an advocate ‘mentioned’ a plea for removing congestion in government hospitals, he had reiterated his disapproval, “the prayer is for tackling congestion in government hospitals and you are mentioning it for urgent hearing? Don’t forfeit your own right for mentioning. It is an extraordinary privilege”

Last week, while addressing another counsel making a ‘mention’, the Chief Justice had remarked, “a thousand new cases are filed every week. We have 11 benches as of now which hear 40 cases each on Mondays and Fridays. So 440 fresh matters each are being heard every Monday and Friday- 880 new cases in a week. Which are the 120 items which we should delete? If there were 13-14 benches, we could hear all”