As the Apex Court is set to open on July 3 after the summer break to a new process of listing and mentioning, along with a new scientifically-driven roster, the Supreme Court Collegium will also witness a change.
The five-Judge Collegium, which recommends names to the Centre for appointment of judges in the Supreme Court, got two new members as two of its existing members retired during the summer vacations.
Justice BR Gavai and Justice Surya Kant joined the Supreme Court Collegium as members, following the retirement of Justice KM Joseph and Justice Ajay Rastogi.
Headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, the other members of the Collegium include Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Sanjiv Khanna.
Justice Khanna, Justice Gavai and Justice Kant are set to become the Chief Justice of India in future.
In terms of seniority, Justice Khanna will succeed CJI Chandrachud on November 24, followed by Justice Gavai and Justice Kant.
A three-member Collegium, comprising the CJI and his two immediate predecessors, recommend the names for appointment as High Court judges.
Justice Kaul, the second senior member of the collegium, will retire on December 25, 2023.
As three more judges are set to retire this year, the Apex Court, which is currently working at a strength of 31 judges out of the sanctioned strength of 34, will witness three more vacancies by the end of this year. The Supreme Court judges to retire by the end of this year include Justice Krishna Murari, Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.
Earlier last month, a new roster of work for judges in the Supreme Court was published, along with a new process for listing and mentioning of cases.
The new roster system will be based on the inflow and pendency of cases, after considering the domain expertise of judges of the top court. Media reports said that more judges have been assigned for the ordinary civil, criminal and service cases as India has the highest inflow and pendency on the same.
In order to ensure quick disposal of oil cases, the public interest litigation (PILs) would now be mostly heard by Benches led by the CJI and two senior-most puisne judges.
The top court of the country is set to witness a completely new process for listing and mentioning of fresh cases before the Chief Justice of India from today.
The Apex Court, which opened on Monday after the summer vacation, has adopted to this new process, wherein all fresh miscellaneous matters which are verified by Tuesday will automatically be listed on the coming Monday, while those verified after Tuesday will be listed for Friday of the next week.
The lawyers seeking listing of verified fresh matters prior to such allotted dates will be required to submit their mentioning proformas by 3 pm, so that their cases are heard on the next day.
For those seeking listing on the same day, the proformas will have to be submitted by 10:30 am to the mentioning officer along with a letter of urgency. The CJI will then take a call on the same either during the lunch hours or ‘as the exigency may warrant’.