Dushyant Dave objects to change of benches in sensitive cases before Supreme Court; writes to CJI DY Chandrachud

Senior Counsel and former Supreme Court Bar Association president Dushyant Dave has written to Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud expressing anguish over the listing of sensitive cases pending before the Supreme Court..In the open letter addressed to the CJI, Dave claimed that many cases which were being heard by certain benches were shifted out and listed before other benches in violation of the Supreme Court Rules and the Handbook on Practice and Procedure of the Court which govern listing of cases. "I have personally come across a number of cases listed before various Hon’ble Benches upon first listing and/ or in which notice have been issued, being taken away from those Hon’ble Benches and listed before other Hon’ble Benches. Despite first coram being available the matters are being listed before a Hon’ble Benches in which second coram presides. Matters listed before Court No. 2, 4, 6, 7 amongst others have been shifted out and listed before other Hon’ble Benches in clear disregard of the Rules, the Handbook on Practice and Office Procedure referred above and established Practice and Convention," the letter said.Dave added that the matters so transferred involve questions of human rights, the functioning of constitutional institutions, democracy, freedom of speech etc. Curiously, the Seniority of the first coram is also being ignored in doing so, he said."Our attention is also been drawn by esteemed Colleagues at the Bar, Seniors, and Advocates on Record (AoRs), about various cases in which they have appeared in the first instance on numerous occasions, later the matters being listed before different Benches," the letter stated.It would not be proper for me to enumerate these matters as many of them are pending, Dave added.In this regard, he highlighted the provision in Handbook on Practice and Procedure of the Court which confers an extraordinary power on the CJI to upset the roster and to “pick and choose” and allocate and assign any appeal or cause or matter to any judge or judges of the Court.However, the CJI can only exercise the power as per the practice and in case the coram as per roster is available the Chief Justice cannot exercise power to take away any case before the available coram and place it before another, Dave said. "We have no doubt that as Master of Roster, you have not exercised power under Note 3 referred above as no information is available in this regard," the letter stated.He added that such a practice does not augur well for the institution, and thus pressed for corrective steps to be taken."On your [CJI Chandrachud] appointment, strong hopes were created in the minds of Citizens that under your Leadership, the Supreme Court of India will rise to greater heights, the march towards which has somehow paused for some time earlier. The scars caused on account of such improprieties in the past few years on justice delivery have not healed as yet", Dave contended..The development comes soon after the senior counsel had in open court remarked that cases earlier heard by a bench led by Justice Aniruddha Bose were wrongly being transferred to a bench led by Justice Bela M Trivedi, who is junior to Justice Bose.Further, the case concerning delays by the Central government in notifying appointment of judges recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium was deleted from the bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul who had been hearing the matter.Justice Kaul himself was not amused by the same.He clarified on Tuesday that he did not have a role to play in the deletion. However, he hinted that the CJI might be aware of the deletion and suggested that certain matters are better left unsaid."I had not deleted it or expressed unwillingness to take it up. I am sure the CJI is aware of it (deletion). Some things are best left unsaid. We will see," he said..[Read letter]