Dushyant Dave Writes To CJI DY Chandrachud About Change Of Benches In 'Sensitive Matters'; Says Listing Rules Are Disregarded

Sr. Adv. Dushyant Dave has written an open letter to Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, expressing "anguished at certain happenings about the listing of cases by the Registry of the Supreme Court". Dave has said in the letter that some of the matters being relisted by the registry are "sensitive matters" involving human rights, Freedom of Speech, Democracy, and Functioning of Statutory and Constitutional Institutions.

He stated that several cases were shifted from the previous benches which had dealt with them and despite the availability of the senior judge, those matters were assigned to other benches. This, the senior counsel said, was in violation of the Supreme Court rules.

“I have personally come across a number of cases listed before various Hon'ble Benches upon first listing and/ or in which notice have been issued, being taken away from those Hon'ble Benches and listed before other Hon'ble Benches. Despite first coram being available the matters are being listed before a Hon'ble Benches in which second coram presides. Matters listed before Court No. 2, 4, 6, 7 amongst others have been shifted out and listed before other Hon'ble Benches in clear disregard of the Rules, the Handbook on Practice and Office Procedure referred above and established Practice and Convention. Curiously, the Seniority of the first coram is also being ignored in doing so” the letter states.

As the Master of the Roster on the administrative side, Dave has urged the CJI to look into this immediately and take corrective measures.

Dave has referred to the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 and the Handbook on Practice and Procedure of the Court and Office Procedure on Judicial side published by the Supreme Court of India in 2017 to highlight the power of the Master of the Roster to constitute roster, constituting Benches and for allocation of the cases.

“On your appointment, strong hopes were created in the minds of Citizens that under your Leadership, the Supreme Court of India will rise to greater heights, the march towards which has somehow paused for some time earlier. The scars caused on account of such improprieties in the past few years on justice delivery have not healed as yet” Dave says in the letter.

Dave says he was constrained to write the open letter as efforts to meet the Chief Justice in person to raise this grievance were in vain. Despite of an appointment having been sought months ago by a Senior Advocate for and on behalf of many advocates, they have not been able to meet the CJI to address this issue, the letter says. Dave says in the letter that he had met the Secretary General of the Supreme Court to express this concern. Emails were also sent to the Registrar by Advocates on Record (AoRs) regarding the matter, but there has been no response, the letter states. 

Last week, the Advocate-on-Record for the Tamil Nadu Vigilance Director had written to the Supreme Court Registry taking objection to the re-assigning of the matter to another bench.

Yesterday, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had expressed reservations about the last minute deletion of the judges appointment matter from his bench.

Read the full letter here