PIL on National Court of Appeal: SC directs Centre to respond in six months

The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to respond to the representation of one Vasanthakumar (Petitioner) on the feasibility of establishment of National Court of Appeal in different parts of the country to hear appeals from High Court..A Bench comprising Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justices SA Bobde and Abhay Manohar Sapre issued this direction to the Centre..Citing the distance of the Supreme Court from other parts of the country and the difficulties that people experience while travelling to Delhi, the Petitioner, who is lawyer based in Puducherry, had sought for a direction to the Centre and the concerned departments to consider his representation made in 2013. When the matter first came up in February this year, the Court had issued notice on the limited aspect that the government has not responded in the representation made by the Petitioner..When the case came up for hearing last week, there was no law officer representing the Central government. Additional Solicitor General Neeraj Kishan Kaul, who was present in the court for another matter, was then asked to step in for the Centre..The Court then proceeded to direct the Central government to consider and respond on the Petitioner’s representation within six months..Since the Centre is required to respond to the Petitioner’s representation and not to the Supreme Court, it would be interesting to see if the Court would interfere in the matter subsequent to the Centre’s response.