Supreme Court likely to make work allocation system public soon

They said that the listing of two petitions demanding an independent probe into the death of CBI special judge BH Loya before a bench headed by the CJI manifests that all issues, including allocation of cases, raised by the four senior-most judges in their controversial January 12 press conference, are being considered. The Loya case petitions will come up for hearing on Monday.

The sources said that Justice Misra has held deliberations with fellow judges and also taken into account the suggestions put forth by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and a clear-cut roster system is likely to be followed in the apex court for allocation of cases.

“The apex court registry is very likely to upload on its website the decision of the CJI on allocation of matters. The system will be brought in the public domain as to who will hear what categories of cases,” a highly placed source revealed.

When contacted, SCBA President Vikas Singh said there was a demand from the bar to follow the roster system of allocation of work prevalent in the Delhi High Court. “We are quite hopeful that the CJI in all likelihood is going to accept our suggestions and all misunderstanding that has come out in the open after the press conference of the four judges can be resolved,” Singh said. He said that a system for allocation of cases identical to that in the Delhi High Court is followed in the Bombay High Court.

There is a likelihood that the CJI and the four judges would meet on Monday before the court commences hearings, sources said.