Fresh cases in SC to come up for hearing in within week

In a positive development for litigants, the Supreme Court on Wednesday introduced a new system of listing of fresh cases within a week. It will be operational from February 4.

The top court's registry issued a circular in this regard.

“Fresh matters verified on Friday in the post-lunch session, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday in the pre-lunch session shall be posted on Friday in the same week and those verified on Tuesday in the post-lunch session, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in the pre-lunch session be listed on Monday next week,” it said.

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had on January 23 said in open court that all fresh matters filed in the Supreme Court would be listed for hearing within a period of five days.

"I have settled new norms of listing of cases. We are trying to get rid of urgent mentioning before the court, which unnecessarily takes away time," the CJI had said.

"After five days, if the matter is still not listed, the lawyers can make mention before a Registrar and get their cases listed," he said.

Every day, the lawyers make a queue inside the CJI' court to mention the cases filed by them to seek an urgent listing.

After assuming the office as CJI on October 3, last, the CJI had asked the lawyers not to mention the cases until or unless it involved execution of death penalty or demolition of a structure/building.

Previous CJI Dipak Misra had debarred senior advocates from mentioning the matters. He had directed only advocate-on-record, who filed the case, would be allowed to make a mentioning for urgent listing.