Former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan Files Plea Seeking Allocation Of Cases By Collegium

Former Law Minister and Senior Advocate Shanti Bhushan has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking that the listing of cases in the top court be done by the collegium of five seniormost judges and not the Chief Justice of India alone.

“This petition raises issue as to extremely disturbing trend of listing matters subjectively and selectively as clearly discernible from the available data of matters recently filed and listed before only certain Hon'ble Benches,” Bhushan said in his petition.

Also Read: A Supreme Court Changed Forever: Editorial

Bhushan has made the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra one of the respondents in the petition. On that ground, he has written a letter to the Secretary General asking that this petition should be listed before three most senior judges besides the Chief Justice, to decide on the bench that would hear the petition.

Bhushan's petition comes after after a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Misra had passed a judgement in November last year that only the Chief Justice of India is the ‘master of the roster' as far as the allocation of benches is concerned. In January, four seniormost judges of the Supreme Court Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph had held an unprecedented press conference and raised their concerns over the matter of allocation of cases.

The date for listing of this petition has not been fixed yet.

Also Read: Supreme Court Judges' Press Conference Will Dent Judiciary's Image, Legal Fraternity Says