New Delhi: "If it were possible, we would have heard all cases today itself."
On Tuesday, new Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi was candid when he addressed lawyers in the first court, expressing his desire to bring about certain positive changes on the administrative side.
"Let me assure you, we are changing things. And every change takes some time. Have some patience and give some time to our Registrars. Let us be fair to all,” Justice Gogoi added.
"We understand the anxiety of the litigants and the lawyers, we are trying our best to accommodate everyone," he said.
The CJI made these remarks after a bunch of lawyers had finished mentioning matters for early hearing.
Justice Gogoi also made it clear that henceforth, there will not be automatic deletion of matters from the list and a case will be removed only with prior intimation to the lawyers concerned.
Indicating a complete overhaul of the manner in which the cases will come up for hearing across the courtrooms in the Supreme Court, the CJI pointed out that the time between filing and listing of cases will be shortened to the extent that the lawyers will have no reason to mention for early hearing in regular cases.
The CJI had on his first day also told lawyers not to randomly mention any case for early listing.
"Mention only if someone is going to be hanged today… or the house is getting demolished or the person is being evicted. Mention before us only when there is real urgency. Rest of the matters will be taken care of by our Registrar otherwise too," Justice Gogoi had clarified.
Another visible change in the cause list this week is listing of criminal appeals.
In an evident move to expedite hearing of criminal cases where hundreds of people are behind bars awaiting final word from the top court, the first 10 cases for regular hearing in most of the courts on Wednesday are criminal appeals pending for adjudication for several years.
In accordance with the roster, benches assigned to hear such matters have first 10 cases as criminal appeals.
The beginning appears to be good and promising. But Justice Gogoi is certainly not the first CJI to make these administrative reforms. Given the fact that he is at the helm for 13 months, only the time will tell how far he succeeds in these earnest endeavours.
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