The Chief Justice of India is the master of the roster and is the spokesperson and leader of the judiciary, the Supreme Court said today while hearing a petition filed by former law minister Shanti Bhushan.
The CJI is the first among equals and has the exclusive duty of allocating cases to different benches of the Supreme Court, a two-judge bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said in separate but concurring judgments while disposing of Bhushan’s petition.
The bench, in an important observation, also said that the chief justice’s role could not be interpreted to include the Collegium, which consists of the five senior-most judges of the top court.
The observation essentially means that the CJI can assign cases to different benches on his own and that the Collegium does not play a role in deciding which bench of the Supreme Court hears what case.
Bhushan’s petition had said that the CJI cannot be the sole authority to allocate cases to different benches.
The Supreme Court’s comments on Bhushan petition are important because they come in the middle of a raging debate over the powers and functioning of the CJI.
The debate was sparked by an unprecedented press conference held by four judges of the Supreme Court in January this year. The justices included J Chelameswar (who has now retired), Rajan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph.
Among other matters, the judges had questioned CJI Dipak Misra’s allotment of cases.
