On February 4, the Supreme Court emphasized that its Registry lacks the authority to remove a case from the cause list unless explicitly directed by the concerned bench or the Chief Justice of India. This ruling arose from an incident where a case was removed based on the insufficient reason that an alternate arrangement notice was not served.
The case in question, a Special Leave Petition (SLP), was initially set to be heard on January 26, 2025. However, despite the preparedness of the legal files, the Registry removed the case citing the non-receipt of the notice issued to the sole respondent. The Supreme Court, led by Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, scrutinized this decision and found it unwarranted, highlighting that the non-service of such a notice does not justify the deletion from the cause list.
This decision comes amid the Court’s broader concerns about the Registry’s adherence to protocol. The Court has previously criticized the Registry for not listing cases as per judicial orders and highlighted a pattern of procedural non-compliance. In a related directive, the Supreme Court has instructed that any intended deletion of a case for legitimate reasons must be promptly communicated to the involved judges, with a detailed justification provided.
The matter has been rescheduled for a hearing on February 24, 2025, allowing the petitioner’s counsel adequate time to prepare. Meanwhile, the Registrar (Judicial) was ordered to explain the initial deletion, leading to an acknowledgment that the notice was eventually served on January 27, 2025, but without any representation from the respondent by the newly designated Senior Advocate M.C. Dhingra.
