Supreme Court now a National Court of Appeal rather than a constitutional court, avalanche of cases drop on us everyday: Justice Rohinton Nariman

Retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Rohinton Nariman observed on Saturday how the unusually huge number of cases reaching the Supreme Court has made the court a National Court of Appeal rather than a Constitutional court as was envisaged by the Constitution. .The judge said the same has affected the functioning of judge including when giving dissents "as there is an avalanche (of cases) dropping on us everyday."Justice Nariman was responding to a question asked by Bar & Bench at the launch of his book, 'Discordant Notes-The Voice of Dissent in the Last Court of Resort'..The question posed by Bar & Bench was: "How do you think dissent has undergone a change in the Supreme Court when compared to the days of Justice HR Khanna or Justice Sarkar? Is dissent a matter of courage too or its just about an alternate reading of law?".To this Justice Nariman responded as follows:"Answer is during Justice Khanna's days, there were fewer cases and there was a lot of time for thought. Today there is an avalanche dropping on us everyday. Difficulty in becoming a Supreme Court judge today is nothing like earlier."He said how judges now have to write a lot of judgments and there is little time for thought.."The fact that we can write dissent today is a great matter. You finish one judgment and there are three others. It is not that people don't dissent, today but now it is a national court of appeal and not a constitutional court," said Justice Nariman. The ADM Jabalpur case in which Justice HR Khanna dissented was heard by five judges of the Supreme Court — the Chief Justice of India AN Ray, and Justices Khanna, MH Beg, YV Chandrachud and PN Bhagwati. They held by a 4:1 verdict that during Emergency, the right of citizens to move court for enforcement of fundamental rights would stand suspended. Only Justice HR Khanna gave a dissenting judgment..The book launch was held by the Pratibha Naik Foundation with a team of panelists comprising of Bombay High Court judge, Justice Gautam Patel, Senior Advocate Darius Khambata and Former Supreme Court judge, Justice BN Srikrishna. .[Read full account of the event here]

Supreme Court now a National Court of Appeal rather than a constitutional court, avalanche of cases drop on us everyday: Justice Rohinton Nariman

Debayan Roy

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