The Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) has expressed its dissatisfaction over the new mechanism adopted for mentioning urgent matters in the Supreme Court.
Calling the new mechanism a ‘great impediment’ in the listing of urgent matters, the lawyers body urged the CJI to change the system, since it was neither transparent, nor efficient, and leading to a spate of complaints from SCAORA members.
A resolution passed by SCAORA said that it was receiving complaints from its member Advocates-on-Record daily that their urgent matters were not being listed, therefore, causing harm to the interest of justice for litigants and loss of work and reputation for lawyers.
It further prayed the CJI to allow the mentioning of urgent matters immediately after they were registered following the removal of defects.
On July 3, when the Apex Court opened after summer break, it adopted a completely new process for listing and mentioning of fresh cases before the Chief Justice of India.
Under the new mechanism, all fresh miscellaneous matters verified by Tuesday were automatically listed on the coming Monday, while those verified after Tuesday were listed for Friday of the next week.
The lawyers seeking listing of verified fresh matters prior to such allotted dates were 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 have to be submitted by 10:30 am to the mentioning officer along with a letter of urgency. The CJI would then take a call on the same either during the lunch hours or ‘as the exigency may warrant’.
For after-notice and regular hearing matters that are sought to be urgently listed, the Counsels were required to first go before the mentioning officer with the proforma and urgency letter.
The Supreme Court Registrar (Judicial Administration) would then notify the lists so generated for mentioning before appropriate benches, after seeking instructions from the CJI.
No mentionings other than those in the mentioning lists uploaded a day prior were permitted for such matters.
Earlier, the Advocates were supposed to submit the mentioning proformas by 10:25 am for all fresh matters or those not designated a new bench. The Chief Justice of India would then hear all the mentionings 10.30 am onwards and allot dates.
Recently, the practice witnessed mentioning of as many as 300 odd items on some days. After-notice and partially heard regular matters would then be mentioned before the concerned benches.