New Delhi – Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjeev Khanna has issued a fresh roster for allocation of new cases for 16 benches. It has been decided that the first three courts headed by the CJI and two senior-most judges will hear letter petitions and PILs. This roster has come into effect from November 11.
Two senior judges will hear fresh petitions
A bench headed by two senior-most judges Justice BR Gavai and Justice Suryakant will hear fresh petitions and new public interest litigations (PILs) arising from letters written by citizens to the apex court.
A bench of judges will also consider these cases
Apart from letter petitions and PILs, the bench headed by the Chief Justice will consider maximum issues subject-wise, including cases related to social justice, disputes related to the election of the President, Vice President and other cases related to the election of MPs and MLAs, habeas corpus cases and arbitration cases. The bench headed by Justice Suryakant will also hear election related petitions.
Former CJI Chandrachud had changed the practice
Former Chief Justice UU Lalit used to allocate PILs to all the benches. But, former Chief Justice DY Chandrachud had stopped this practice. Subject wise cases have been allocated to 16 senior judges who will head the benches. Justice JB Pardiwala, who was sharing the bench with former Chief Justice Chandrachud, will also look into direct and indirect tax cases apart from general civil cases.
These are the 13 other judges
Apart from the three senior-most judges including the CJI, the other 13 judges are – Justice Hrishikesh Roy, Justice AS Oka, Justice Vikram Nath, Justice JK Maheshwari, Justice BV Nagarathna, Justice CT Ravikumar, Justice MM Sundresh, Justice Bela M Trivedi, Justice PS Narasimha, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, Justice JB Pardiwala, Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Pankaj Mithal.
