The Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that the judges of the Apex court are wilting under the enormous burden of workload .

He added the Chief Justice of India (CJI) along with other judges are under immense stress whenever they have to deal with task of listing the matters.

The CJI is the master of the roster of the Supreme Court and he allocates cases to different benches. 

The CJI said that the court has 525 matters to be listed before 13 benches in the coming week,which is too big a load. The pressure is enormous.

The CJI spoke about how the pressure and workload is creating tough time for the luminaries.

The CJI added that believe me judges are wilting under the strain. There are almost 45 to 50 cases before every bench,said.

In an open court, the Chief justice of India j has mentioned that  four special benches will sit in Supreme Court from next week.

The four benches will deal with:

1. Criminal appeals;

2. Land acquisition matters;

3. Motor Accident Claims Tribunal cases;

4. Direct and Indirect Tax.

Soon after the new CJI took over the charge on November 10, he gave instructions to the registry to streamline listing of registered cases in Supreme Court.

The CJI later announced that he aims to employ technology in listing of cases, thereby, reducing the role of the role of registry and the CJI as the master of roster, when it comes to listing.

Starting next week, the Supreme Court will have specialised benches to hear cases related to land acquisition, direct and indirect tax, motor accident claims, tribunal matters and old criminal appeals, Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said on Wednesday. 

The CJI revealed this, when a Counsel mentioned a case for urgent hearing. 

Justice Chandrachud told the Counsel to mention the matter before the special bench next week, stating that if he was not mistaken, a Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant would be taking up land acquisition matters.

The CJI had yesterday said that the Apex Court has decided to have a special bench from the next week onwards on Wednesdays and Fridays, which will solely deal with direct and indirect sales tax matters.

Last year in October, Justice Chandrachud had appreciated V. Lakshmikumaran, Founding Partner of tax law firm Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, for his suggestion on constituting a tax bench, which will go a long way in easing the pendency of tax cases before the top court of the country.

Justice Chandrachud, who was then the third senior-most judge in the Supreme Court, had said that this was a great decision and he would speak to Justice N.V. Ramana, who was then serving as the CJI. 

In 2015, a tax bench comprising Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rohinton Nariman was constituted, which delivered over 800 judgments after its formation. This bench, which sat during the period between 2015 and 2016, was greatly appreciated by the Bar for its speed and quality of justice dispensation.

The Supreme Court has directed the High Courts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Patna, Bombay and Orissa to file affidavits submitting their plan of action for deciding the criminal appeals that have been pending before the High Courts for a long period of time.

A bench comprising Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice S. Ravindra Bhat was hearing an appeal filed by a life convict against the order of the Allahabad High court which rejected his plea for suspension of sentence.

The bench while hearing the appeal observed that a large number of appeals are pending before the High Courts since a long period of time.

The bench thereafter said that “according to the available statistics from the website of the National Judicial Data Grid the total number of criminal appeals in such High Courts which have been pending for 30 years or more is 14484. Criminal appeals which have been pending for over twenty years- and up-to thirty years are 33,045; criminal appeals which have been pending for over ten years, upto 20 years are 2,35,914.”

The bench pointing at the number of pendency of cases in the High Courts observed that  “these facts pose a challenge to the judicial system, inasmuch as right to speedy trial would also include the right to speedy disposal of appeals of those convicted. If such appeals are not taken up for hearing within a reasonable time, the right of appeal itself would be illusory, inasmuch as incarcerated convicts (who are denied bail) would have undergone a major part- if  not whole of the period of their sentence. The other challenge is to ensure that old criminal appeals, where High Courts had earlier, in the course of proceedings, granted bail or suspension of sentence. It is in public interest- and the interests of the convicts, that such appeals too are disposed of on merits expeditiously.”

The High Courts have also been directed to co-ordinate with the Director General Prisons, in their respective states, to compile data with respect to convicts in jails of those states, who are awaiting hearing of their appeals.

The bench has directed the High Court to mention the following information in their affidavits:

 (a) Total number of convicts awaiting hearing of their appeals pending before them;

 (b) Segregation of single judge and Division Bench matters;

 (c) The number of cases where – in such old pending cases, bail has been granted;

 (d) Steps proposed to expedite hearing of appeals, including steps to prioritize hearing of cases of convicts in jail;

 (e) Steps proposed to trace and ensure hearing of cases of those who were granted bail, and the timeline for starting hearings;

 (f) Appropriate use of information technology, such as digitization of appeal records/paper books;

(g) Feasibility of creation of a dedicated pool of amicus curae who would assist the court in such old matters; and

 (h) Feasibility to creation of dedicated special benches for hearing and disposal of old cases or alternatively assigning a certain number of appeals to a large number of judges to be decided by them, regardless of which rosters they are assigned.

The matter has been listed for next hearing on July 29.

Read the order here;

-India Legal Bureau