CJI Surya Kant Mutes Virtual Link Audio During Morning Case Mentioning

In a first since hybrid hearings began in the Supreme Court, audio of its virtual link was today muted during the duration of mentioning of urgent cases by lawyers in Courtroom No. 1 presided over by the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.

Notably, mentioning is a daily morning ritual which happens in the court soon after the Bench assembles at 10:30 AM and goes on for 10 to 15 minutes. During this, the CJI evaluates the urgency of each matter mentioned before him to either assign a hearing date or deny immediate listing, often delivering brief oral observations.

The muting of the audio occurred today days after CJI Surya Kant observed that mentioning of urgent matters is an "administrative and housekeeping" exercise rather than a judicial proceeding and, therefore, should not be reported.

Recently, the CJI had refused to hear a petition pertaining to police action on CJP protesters at Jantar Mantar as a mentioning regarding the same was made. "Don't waste our time," CJI had said. When the lawyer pointed out that videos showing police excesses existed, the CJI said, "We are not interested in videos. We don't have time to watch videos."

Later CJI had clarified that he did not refuse to hear a petition pertaining to police action on CJP protesters at Jantar Mantar. "Some fellow mentioned it. Media has falsely reported that I refused to list the matter. It was only a representation and people started recklessly reporting it. I checked with registry and not a paper has been filed..", CJI said in court.

Last year, CJI had 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 had said.

CJI Kant had also said that requests for urgent listing must be made in writing through a mentioning slip and not by oral mentioning. He had said this 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.

Justice Surya Kant had earlier also 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.