Constitution Bench

The listing of several five-judge Constitution Bench matters for hearing from today, the first working day of the 49th Chief Justice of India (CJI), UU Lalit, is significant for shifting the focus back on a critical aspect that has been overlooked in recent years. It underscores that the Supreme Court is not merely a court of appeal but also the interpreter of the Constitution, and equally important, that because its role is to lay down the law with clarity, a prompt decision allows lower courts to follow suit in similar matters. The announcement by the new CJI, who has a short tenure of 74 days, that the court would strive to have a Constitution Bench sitting throughout the year is aimed at avoiding the long delays. There are nearly 500 such pending cases, of which 41 are main matters. A decision in these 41 could dispose of most of the connected ones. Seemingly left in the cold storage are matters such as Article 370.

The pendency of cases before the Supreme Court has crossed over 71,000, from a little over 55,000 in 2017, despite the sanctioned strength being increased to 34 judges in 2019. Though outgoing CJI Ramana apologised for not being able to list all the pending matters while citing the difficulties during the pandemic months, his successor said the former’s standout achievement was the appointment of more than 250 high court judges as a result of recommendations by the collegium. The vacancies at various levels of the judiciary and the lack of infrastructure, resulting in the huge caseload and pendency, though, remain key areas of concern. The pace of deployment of modern technological tools that can be of assistance in quicker delivery of justice, too, has not been encouraging.

It was in 2018 that a Supreme Court Bench, citing the open court concept, allowed live-streaming of cases having constitutional or national importance before a Constitution Bench. That has not achieved fruition, but it did mark a first for the apex court when it allowed live-streaming of proceedings of the ceremonial Bench that bid adieu to CJI Ramana. At present, six high courts live-stream their proceedings.

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