SC to hear plea against allocation of cases by CJI

New Delhi, April 13: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine a plea on whether the allocation of “sensitive and important cases” should be done by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) alone or by the collegium of five senior-most judges. Asking Attorney General K.K. Venugopal to assist the court in hearing of the matter, a bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan asked: “CJI is the master of roster, should we interpret it to mean collegium... would it be feasible?” Observing that nearly one lakh cases come to the top court every year, Justice Sikri wondered if the collegium will sit for each and every case.

The observation came in the course of the hearing of the plea by former Law Minister and senior counsel Shanti Bhuhan, seeking that the allocation of important and sensitive cases be done by the collegium of five senior-most judges and not by the CJI alone. When senior advocate Dushyant Dave said “sensitive cases” like those which directly touch upon the very “survival of democracy” should not be left to the discretion of the CJI, the court told him: “What is sensitive for you may not be sensitive for another.” (IANS)