Prashant Bhushan alleges Supreme Court Registry violated rules to list case before Justice Bela Trivedi instead of CJI

Advocate Prashant Bhushan on Wednesday wrote 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 Bela M Trivedi..Bhushan in his communication stated that the Registry, by posting the matter before Justice Trivedi, arbitrarily breached the listing rules of the Supreme Court and bypassed Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud in the process."A plain reading of orders [in the case]...would show that these matters were to be placed before Hon'ble CJI", his letter stated..In November 2021, a Bench of which Justice Chandrachud (as he then was) was a part had granted interim protection to petitioners booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with their social media posts and work related to the 2021 communal violence in Tripura.The Court had issued notice to the State of Tripura and the Central government on the petition which, besides seeking quashing of the case, challenged the vires of Section 2(1)(o) of the UAPA that defines ‘unlawful activity’.Bhushan pointed out in his letter to the Registry that benches led by CJI Chandrachud had passed orders in the matter even thereafter.However, after other pleas assailing provisions of the UAPA were listed before a bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Trivedi (the junior judge on the bench), the Tripura case also was placed before them.This was in violation of clause 15 of the New Scheme for Automated Listing of Cases, as the case should have followed the bench presided by CJI Chandrachud, Bhushan claimed.Nonetheless, by an order dated October 31, 2023, the bench of Justices Bose and Trivedi directed that the matter be listed "before the appropriate bench"..But again, instead of listing the matter before the CJI as per clause 15, it was listed on November 29 before a bench of Justice Trivedi who was now presiding the bench."In a further surprising turn of events, instead of being listed before CJI Dr. DY Chandrachud; on 29.11.2023, all these connected matters were listed before a bench presided over by Hon'ble Justice Bela Trivedi. The aforementioned 'Clause 15' was breached as these matters should have been listed before CJI Dr. DY Chandrachud," Bhushan said in his letter.Pending matters follow the senior presiding judge and are listed before the puisne judge only if the senior presiding judge is unavailable, Bhushan stated.The lawyer termed the turn of events 'surprising' and requested the registrar concerned to 'rectify the arbitrariness' by January 10, when the case is next listed.Bhushan also requested that the petitioner be apprised whether there was any specific administrative order to list the matter before Justice Bose or Justice Trivedi."Otherwise, the petitioners would be constrained to avail appropriate legal remedies," the letter said..The issue of listing of cases before the Supreme Court has recently garnered attention.Senior Advocate and former Supreme Court Bar Association president Dushyant Dave had recently written to Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud expressing anguish over the listing of sensitive cases.In an 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. This, Dave claimed, was in violation of the Supreme Court Rules and the Handbook on Practice and Procedure of the Court, which govern listing of cases.He had added that such a practice does not augur well for the institution, and thus pressed for corrective steps to be taken.Dave had last month 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 Trivedi, who is junior to Justice Bose.Notably, the case concerning judicial appointments 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, and 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..Meanwhile, Supreme Court Bar Association President Adish C Aggarwala wrote to the CJI opposing the open letters against the listing of cases.Aggarwala in his letter has asked the CJI to ignore such communications by disgruntled senior members of the bar.