Supreme Court special bench to hear SCBA plea seeking top court land for chambers

A special bench of the Supreme Court will hear on Friday the plea by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) seeking conversion of land allotted to the apex court as a chamber block for lawyers [Supreme Court Bar Association vs Ministry of Urban Development and ors]..A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and PS Narasimha will hear the matter.Justice Kaul is the senior most puisne judge of the top court who presides the bench in courtroom 2.The case has been a cause of disaccord between the SCBA and the CJI for the past few days after the CJI rebuked SCBA president Vikas Singh on March 2 for insisting on urgent listing of the case.Singh had persistently mentioned the matter on March 2 despite the CJI saying it would be listed only in ordinary course. Singh had then stated that he would even visit the CJI's residence to get the matter heard.In response, the CJI had asked Singh to leave the court immediately and said that he would not be intimidated and that Singh would be treated only like any other litigant."You cannot expect the bench to be cowered down. I have never been browbeaten, and I will not let this happen in final two years of my career. You can pursue your political agendas outside the court hall."The CJI had also reminded Singh that he was asking for land allotted to the Supreme Court to be given to lawyers under Article 32. Interestingly, after this episode, Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Neeraj Kishan Kaul had apologised to the CJI for Singh's conduct. .Later, the executive committee (EC) of the SCBA "expressed solidarity" with Singh.It also proposed to pass two resolutions one of which called for action against lawyers who make mentioning contrary to the SCBA's stand in the case.The second one sought issuance of show-cause notices to Kaul and Sibal, for their act of apologising to the CJI for Singh's conduct.A general body meeting of the SCBA slated for March 16 at 4 PM will be voting on the two resolutions.Subsequent to the EC meeting, more than 470 lawyers including Senior Advocates also wrote to the SCBA objecting to the two resolutions.