The causelist of the Supreme Court for March 26 was a bit intriguing. It had 741 cases listed before the court of Chief Justice of India. The causelist also said that matters from items 12 to 741 are defective matters.
It was not clear why the same was listed in open court though as such cases are usually dealt with in chambers.
However, towards the evening it became clear why the cases were listed in open court. When the cases came up for hearing, the Bench which also comprised Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjeev Khanna remarked that the defects in the cases have to be cured within two weeks, else the cases would be dismissed.
Most of these cases go as far back as 2010 and 2011 and have remained pending owing to defects. These cases will now be dismissed without notice if defects are not cured within the stipulated two weeks.
Before embarking on his tenure as Chief Justice of India, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had said that he had a plan to try and tackle the problem of pendency of cases which is bringing disrepute to the judiciary and reducing the system to irrelevance.
Attempt to streamline the practice of mentioning and giving short dates when matters are adjourned have been characteristic of Chief Justice Gogoi’s court.
