CJI Surya Kant objects to haphazard mentioning of cases

The Chief Justice of India today reprimanded a counsel for mentioning a case before his bench as the judges were ready to rise for the day.

"There is no timing for mentioning in this Court..anytime we come and go, there's mentioning. Morning when I come, there's mentioning. We are about to rise now, there's mentioning. This has to stop", CJI Surya Kant said.

Just yesterday, CJI Kant had clarified that requests for urgent listing must be made in writing through a mentioning slip and not by oral mentioning. This clarification came as a response to an urgent mention of a matter relating to the demolition of a canteen before the bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice AS Chandurkar.

"If you have any urgent mentioning, give your mentioning slip along with the cause of urgency, the registrar will examine and in those matters, if we find an element of urgency, will take it up", the CJI had said.

Notably, two months back, then Justice Surya Kant had refused to list a case after it was mentioned before him. "Unless someone is about to be hanged, I will never list a mentioned case on the same day", the supreme court judge had said.

The judge had gone on to say that advocates do not understand the plight of judges. "Do you even know how many hours we have been working and how many hours of sleep we get? Unless someone's liberty is at stake, we will not list it the same day," Justice Kant added.

The mentioning was made before Justice Kant's bench which also comprised` Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh. Normally, the mentioning for the day are made before the Chief Justice of India, but as he was sitting on a five-judge constitution bench, the second most senior judge heard the mentioning of cases. The case mentioned before Justice Kant related to that of a house being auctioned.