Breaking: SC seeks assistance of AG KK Venugopal in Shanti Bhushan PIL

The Supreme Court today sought the assistance of Attorney General KK Venugopal and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in the PIL filed by former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan on the master of roster power exercised by the Chief Justice of India..The order was passed by a Bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan after hearing Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, who appeared for the petitioner..When the hearing began today, Dave submitted that the issue raised in the petition is a very substantial one..“It raises a very substantial issue and is founded on the principle of ‘May you be howsoever high, the law is above you’..We are not against any particular order. We are not here to make any personal allegation against anyone.”.Justice Sikri repsonded by saying that the issue is whether the CJI should be treated as a Collegium for the purpose of exercise of administrative powers..“Lakhs of cases are filed here. Is it your case that the Collegium should sit for allotting all these cases?”, asked Justice Sikri..“That is not my case. It is only in exceptional cases that CJI exercises his discretionary powers to allot cases. Once CJI frames roster, matters should follow as per that. That has not been happening in many cases..Our case is that sensitive cases like those which directly touch upon the very survival of the democracy, should not be left to the discretion of the CJI”, submitted Dave..“How do you decide which case is sensitive and which is not?”, asked Justice Bhushan..“I bow down. But how does the Registry decide which case to take instruction from CJI? How does the CJI decide which case he has to exercise discretion?”, Dave retorted..Justice Sikri then opined that the proposal of the petitioner of having the Collegium exercise the administrative power of CJI is not the solution..“You are aggreived by the manner of exercise of power by CJI. But Collegium does not seem to be the solution, because Collegium will then have to sit every other day. If you can come up with some other suggestion, then maybe we could consider”, said Sikri J..Dave then cited the instance of an arbitrary listing by a former CJI and how the Supreme Court later undid the damage in review..“We have had a CJI who listed certain business matters before himself and passed orders. After he retired, all those orders were reviewed. Thankfully, we had judges then who had the courage to do it”, said Dave..Justice Sikri then opined that it could be handled internally..“What if it is not done internally? You have to devise a procedure not for us, but for the sake of the institution”, Kapil Sibal weighed in..The Bench then said that it will seek the views of Attorney General KK Venugopal and ASG Tushar Mehta (who was present in the court room)..It directed that copies of the petition be served on the two law officers, and posted the matter for April 27..Bhushan had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking to regulate the powers of the Chief Justice of India as master of roster. The petition claims that the manner in which politically sensitive matters are being listed before select judges is a violation of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 and Handbook of Practice and Procedure, 2017..The petition also enlists a number of politically sensitive cases in which there was “gross abuse of power” as regards listing. These include the petition filed by Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) calling for a CBI probe into the medical college bribery case, and the Judge Loya matter..It has been prayed in the petition that the Supreme Court issue a writ declaring that listing of matters must strictly adhere to the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 and Handbook on Practice and Procedure and Office Procedure, subject to the following clarification:.The words ‘Chief Justice of India’ must be deemed to mean a collegium of 5 senior judges of this Hon’ble Court..Just yesterday, Justice Jasti Chelameswar, the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, refused to entertain a mentioning of the matter by Prashant Bhushan..Earlier this week, a Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had once again reiterated the primacy of the Chief Justice when it comes to listing of matters in the Court. In that judgment, the Court held,.“…From an institutional perspective the Chief Justice is placed at the helm of the Supreme Court. In the allocation of cases and the constitution of benches the Chief Justice has an exclusive prerogative. As a repository of constitutional trust, the Chief Justice is an institution in himself…”