Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said on Monday the Supreme Court will be able to maintain its credibility if it ensures allocation of cases to benches is not “lawyer-driven”.

In an exclusive interview with PTI, the CJI responded to the allegations about politically important cases being earmarked to particular judges of the Supreme Court.

“I am very, very clear in my mind that if the credibility of the institution of the Supreme Court is to be maintained, we have to ensure that the allocation of cases in the Supreme Court is not going to be a lawyer-driven allocation,” he said.

“It has to be an allocation which we do in terms of our system laid down in the Supreme Court,” the CJI said, adding: “You have to trust your decision makers.”

Senior lawyers such as Prashant Bhushan and Dushyant Dave had recently questioned the way important matters were reassigned to judges.

Underlining that there are “well-defined structures” for the allocation of cases, he said they were assigned through the roster, according to which the subject matter is printed in advance under the authority of the chief justice.

“The roster is notified for everyone to see. It is in the public realm. It is published on the website of the Supreme Court,” the CJI added.

He said every Supreme Court judge is entitled to decide any case that the CJI assigns.

“No lawyer can insist that I will have my case decided by a particular judge. That does not do justice either to the credibility of the individual judge or the purity of the administration of justice,” the CJI said.

He said if a judge recuses himself from a case, the CJI reassigns it to a senior or junior judge.

“Once the case is assigned to a judge, that case follows the judge unless a judge falls sick and says I don’t want to take up this case because I am not on duty next month. This case has to be reassigned,” the CJI said.

PTI