We do not want to give special priority to senior lawyers: CJI

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, August 11

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said its new system of mentioning cases for urgent hearing before its registrars, instead of its benches, was aimed to ensure that senior lawyers were not given “special priority” over their young lawyers.

Justice NV Ramana, who took over as the 48th CJI on April 24, has discontinued the practice of lawyers directly mentioning cases for urgent listing before the top court’s Benches. Now, lawyers are required to mention their cases before the designated registrars.

“We do not want to give any special priority to the senior lawyers and deprive the junior lawyers of their opportunities. So this system was made, where all can make the mention before the Mentioning Registrar”, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana told advocate Prashant Bhushan after the latter raised the issue.

Bhushan, who represented NGO ‘Common Cause’ in a coal scam related PIL, said matters remained “languishing” for months despite being mentioned before registrars for urgent listing before benches.

”First you go to the Mentioning Registrar, and if it’s disallowed, your right to mention before the Bench is automatic,” the Bench told Bhushan.

Maintaining that rejection was not an issue, Bhushan said even if the mentioning of a case was allowed, the case didn’t get listed before the Bench for hearing.

“You can automatically mention it if it’s rejected. Present a specific case I will look into it,” the CJI told Bhushan.