CJI Chandrachud, 2 Senior-Most Judges To Hear PILs As Supreme Court Releases Fresh Roster

The new subject-wise roster will come into effect from July 3 when the top court reopens after the summer vacation.

The Supreme Court has published a fresh roster for the allocation of new cases to 15 benches. ( Image Source :PTI )

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has published a fresh roster for the allocation of new cases to 15 benches from July 3. The cases to different cases will be allocated as per the subject-wise roster.

The first bench presided over by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud will be dealing with a maximum number of issues ranging from cases pertaining to indirect taxes, service matters, criminal appeals, election petitions, company law, habeas corpus matters, and arbitration.

The matters relating to the appointment of constitutional authorities and judicial officers, armed forces, and admissions to educational institutions will also be dealt with by the CJI-led bench.

Notably, the subject-wise roster was notified by the apex court registry under the order of the CJI and will come into effect from July 3 when the top court reopens after the summer vacation.

In a significant development, now, the fresh petitions arising out of the letters written by the citizens to the apex court and the new public interest litigations (PILs) will also be heard by the bench presided over by the CJI.

According to Live Law, the second and third benches, led by Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sanjiv Khanna respectively, can also hear letter petitions and PILs which will be assigned to them by the CJI.

Justice Chandrachud's predecessor, CJI U U Lalit, had allocated PILs to all the benches, PTI reported.

In February 2018, the former Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, implemented the subject-wise roster system in response to the 'master of roster' controversy, which erupted after the press conference by four senior judges who accused the CJI of selectively assigning cases to preferred benches, disregarding judges' seniority, as per Live Law.

The subject-wise allocation of cases has been done for 15 senior judges who will be presiding benches in the apex court from July 3.

The 12 other presiding judges are B R Gavai, Surya Kant, Aniruddha Bose, A S Bopanna, Krishna Murari, S Ravindra Bhat, Hrishikesh Roy, Abhay S Oka, Vikram Nath, J K Maheshwari and Hima Kohli.