SC’s Day-To-Day Functioning: New CJI Surya Kant To Announce First Phase Of Reforms On Dec 1

New Chief Justice of India Surya Kant today announced that the initial phase of reforms, as far as the working of the Supreme Court is concerned, will roll out from December 1, which is coming Monday.

This will be exactly one week after he took charge as 53rd Chief Justice of India. The first announcement is likely to be limited to mentioning of urgent matters for early listing. When lawyers today pressed to mention their matters, the CJI responded: “You all should wait with patience, I assure we are working on your concerns, and there’s no need to mention cases for now…I will be coming up with a new system from December 1. Let us see if it will work. We will begin on a trial basis soon. We will introduce something…let us test it."On November 25 afternoon, CJI Kant expressed displeasure at a lawyer, Sriram Parakkat, who tried to mention a matter in the afternoon (he was trying to mention CPI’s petition in the SIR batch of matters for tagging with other pending matters). The CJI asked Advocate Parakkat: “Is there no timing of mentioning in this Court? Anytime we come and go, there's mentioning..morning when I come, there's mentioning. We are about to rise, there's mentioning. If I go for special bench, there's mentioning. This has to stop."On his first day itself, Chief Justice Kant signalled a shift in the Supreme Court’s morning routine, announcing that the practice of listing matters on the same day upon oral mentioning would no longer be entertained, except in cases involving personal liberty or imminent execution. All requests for urgent listing must now be routed through a written letter of urgency, he said. Such letters, he said, would first be examined by the registrar (judicial administration) before being placed before the CJI for administrative directions. “All of you give a letter of urgency to the registrar. The officer will examine them and bring such requests to the CJI. Wherever there are adequate reasons."