We cannot run the country: Supreme Court on plea about captive elephants in Kerala

The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that there may be a thousand issues in the country that merit attention, but the top court cannot render itself dysfunctional by hearing everything..Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud made the comment during the mentioning of an intervention application (IA) relating to captive elephants in Kerala.The CJI expressed anguish over what he called proliferation of IAs in the cases pending before the apex court and emphasized on the need to understand the role of the top court in the country.“This issue deals with local issues…the High Court judges understand local conditions and if the High Court makes an egregious error, then we can look into it. But how do we run the country like this?”.Senior Advocate CU Singh, who mentioned the matter, alleged that there were large-scale violations of the rules. However, CJI Chandrachud asked why the intervenor cannot raise the issue before the Kerala High Court.Singh responded that a larger batch concerning the issue was pending before the top court. He also submitted that 135 elephants have died in captivity in Kerala from 2018 to 2022. However, the CJI persisted and asked why the questions cannot be raised before the High Court, which has “seasoned judges”.“Now we cannot entertain everything here to make the Supreme Court dysfunctional,” the CJI said. .The Court ultimately agreed to hear the intervenor during the hearing of the main matter pertaining to the issue of elephants in captivity. “We are of the view that it will not be possible to entertain such IAs. The intervenor may be heard on substantive issues when the writ is listed,” said the Court, as it listed the main case for the first week of December.