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Supreme Court bench holds marathon sitting ahead of Dussehra break
The Supreme Court judge who recently said that the apex court should not be known as “tareekh pe tareekh” (having date after date for matters) court, set a record of sorts on Friday by holding a marathon sitting for almost 10 hours, as it ended the proceedings for the day at 9.15 pm — over five hours from the usual closing of court at 4 pm.
The Supreme Court judge who recently said that the apex court should not be known as “tareekh pe tareekh” (having date after date for matters) court, set a record of sorts on Friday by holding a marathon sitting for almost 10 hours, as it ended the proceedings for the day at 9.15 pm — over five hours from the usual closing of court at 4 pm.
It was the final day of sitting of the Supreme Court before heading for a week-long Dussehra break. Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, who began his day as usual at 10.30 am sitting with Justice Hima Kohli, finished the board of 76 matters by sitting for 9 hours and 45 minutes.
However, Justice Chandrachud’s late sitting compelled a collegium meeting in the top court to get cancelled. The meeting, to be presided over by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit, was expected to discuss some names for the appointment to the Supreme Court, which is presently short of five judges out of the total sanctioned strength of 34. Three days ago, it made one recommendation of appointment to the top court. Bombay high court chief justice Dipankar Dutta’s name was proposed for elevation.
Apart from the CJI and Justice Chandrachud, the other members of the collegium are justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, SA Nazeer and KM Joseph.
This could have been the last collegium meeting to be headed by Justice Lalit to pick the Supreme Court judges since the CJI demits office on November 8.
Conventionally, the incumbent CJI sends the recommendation for his successor (Justice Chandrachud in this case being the senior most) to the government a month before his or her retirement. After such recommendation, the incumbent CJI refrains from holding collegium meetings.
Meanwhile, on Friday, at around 1 pm, when the bench headed by Justice Chandrachud was about to rise for lunch, a lawyer sought his matter to be urgently taken up at 2 pm. But the judges indicated what was on their mind. The bench said, “Don’t worry. I have told my family members that today I will not come home before completing the Board. I told them not to wait for me.” Little did the lawyers realise that the judges would be sitting way beyond their scheduled rising time for over five hours.
In one of the matters, senior advocate Salman Khurshid, who stayed back in Court to appear in a service matter, got a favourable order after his matter was heard at 8 pm. He remarked, “In future, we will wait for late night hearings, if we are to get relief.”
The energy and commitment of the judges to sit at a stretch amazed junior and senior lawyers alike. Senior advocate Maninder Singh remarked, “My lords need a little stroll as you have been sitting at a stretch for over four-and-a-half hours since 4 pm.” The judges wittingly replied, “Maybe, we need to just walk down to our homes after the hearing gets over.”
Ending their long day, the judges thanked their court staff, peons and lawyers for cooperating with the marathon proceeding. “We are grateful to all our staff. We wish everybody a happy holiday.”
