Obviously you don't control the roster: Justice Bela Trivedi and Kapil Sibal trade barbs in Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday was privy to an exchange between Justice Bela M Trivedi and Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal on the listing of cases in Supreme Court [Abhishek Banerjee and anr v. Directorate of Enforcement]..A Bench of Justices Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma was hearing the case concerning the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee and his wife, requiring them to come to Delhi for interrogation.Appearing for the Banerjees, Sibal expressed his difficulty in arguing the matter today as a batch of pleas challenging the Vijay Madanlal judgment was listed before another Bench at 2 PM today."You have to do something. This is a part-heard matter," Justice Trivedi then remarked.Sibal then firmly replied saying, "I cannot control the roster. The bench was formed for PMLA review suddenly." "Obviously, you cannot control the roster," Justice Trivedi replied..The hearing was thus adjourned to tomorrow..Justice Trivedi has been in the news amid claims that the Supreme Court roster was being improperly modified so as to list sensitive criminal cases before her.Advocate Prashant Bhushan had in December last year written to the Supreme Court Registry raising grievance over a matter concerning cases against two advocates and a journalist being listed before a bench presided by Justice Trivedi.Senior Advocate and former Supreme Court Bar Association President Dushyant Dave too had written to Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud expressing his anguish over such practices.The CJI had refused to intervene in the issue of listing of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Satyendar Jain’s petition for bail in a money-laundering case before Justice Trivedi.In February last year, the CJI had come to the defence of the Supreme Court Registry in this regard.Highly-placed sources in the apex court echoed the CJI's view, saying,"It is not fair to say you will not appear before Justice Trivedi at any cost. Every judge is a judge before the system. A lawyer should be ready to appear before anyone. Merely because the stakes are so high that you want an order at any cost. That is not right. Then you are hunting for a judge. Somebody may feel that Justice Bela Trivedi is a little more strict because she comes from the district judiciary and they have seen the law from a different place. It is what your lived experience as a lawyer has been, but everyone must take it in their stride. But when people insist on a particular judge or court, it is not correct.".In the instant case, in May 2022, the Supreme Court had allowed Banerjee and his wife to be interrogated at the ED’s Kolkata Office in connection with a coal mining scame case..ED can summon any person; those summoned expected to respect and respond: Supreme Court