Only Chief Justice of India can reassign cases, not puisne judges: Supreme Court

Only the Chief Justice of India (CJI) can list cases before different benches of the Supreme Court or reassign them, the apex court reaffirmed on Monday [Orris Infrastrcuture Private Limited vs Manoj Aggarwal and ors]. .A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath made the remark after it was miffed by a case being listed before it by another bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar."Puisne judges cannot re-assign matters. It is only possible by the Hon'ble Chief Justice of India," Justice Gavai-led bench said.The bench of Justices Shah and Ravikumar had on February 27 ordered that the matter in question should be heard by Justice Gavai-led bench, possibly since a bench of Justices Gavai and Ravikumar had last heard the matter even though no effective order was passed on that date..The present bench at the outset stated in its order,"It is a normal practice of this Court that the matter follows a judge who is part of the Bench which has passed an effective order." It was noted that the only effective order in the case, that of issuing notice, was passed in September 2021 by a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Ravikumar. After the retirement of Justice Khanwilkar, the matter followed the bench of which Justice Ravikumar was a part, as is the norm. In September last year, it was listed before Justices Gavai and CT Ravikumar, but no order was passed. Later, when the matter came up before a bench of Justices Shah and Ravikumar, it ordered,“Let the present application be placed before a Bench presided over by Justice BR Gavai, at the earliest.”.The Gavai-led bench, however, disagreed."Ordinarily, the matter(s) pertaining to placing the matter(s) before the Benches are to be passed by Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India. If the particular Bench in particular situation finds that the matter be placed before the another Bench, the Bench is required to direct the matter to be placed before the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India for obtaining appropriate Orders," the bench noted in its order. Further, since an effective order was passed by a bench of which Justice Ravikumar was a member, the matter should have followed the bench of which he is a member.The bench, therefore, directed that the matter be placed before the CJI."We find it appropriate to direct the Registry to place the matter before the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India for obtaining appropriate orders," the Court said..[Read Order]