New Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has unveiled a roster of cases under which he and the second senior-most judge, Justice Madan B. Lokur, would be dealing with all PIL matters.
The earlier CJI, Dipak Misra, had been criticised by the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court who held an unprecedented news conference on January 12 to say he was selectively allocating important PIL matters to benches of his choice.
The four judges, including Justice Gogoi, had said judges relatively junior to them in terms of experience and tenure in the top court had been allocated PILs.
After assuming charge as the new chief justice, Gogoi has decided that he himself or the second senior-most judge, Justice Lokur, would deal with PIL matters.
Two judges who had been sitting in the CJI’s court since May 13, 2016 — Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud — have been allocated Court Nos. 3 and 11.
While Justice Khanwilkar will now be sitting in a bench headed by Justice Kurian Joseph, Justice Chandrachud would be sitting in a bench headed by Justice U.U. Lalit.
Justices Khanwilkar and Chandrachud were sitting in the CJI’s court earlier presided over by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur who demitted office on January 3, 2017, followed by Justice J.S. Khehar who retired on August 27, 2017, and Justice Misra who retired on October 2, 2018.
As per convention, the relatively junior judges are accommodated in the CJI’s court, which is the most important court among all the other halls in the Supreme Court.
