Responding to a grievance against its registry for allegedly not following the rules on listing of cases, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday it is “easy to be irresponsible” in making such allegations. It said judges of the top follow discipline in such matters.
A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandarchud was hearing lawyers mentioning issues with regard to cases arising from a cash-for-job scam in Tamil Nadu being listed before different judges.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave said while the registry of the apex court is working hard and there are rules it is bound to follow on listing of cases arising from the same issue, the cases in the present instance were being placed before two different judges.
“Mr Dave, it is always easy to be irresponsible in your allegations against the registry. You have the liberty to criticise everybody under the sun. We as judges of this court have to follow some discipline and I will follow it by looking at the matter in the evening and assign it to a particular judge,” CJI Chandrachud said.
Dave told the bench, also comprising Justice P S Narasimha, that he has utmost respect for the judiciary and his criticism was only objective.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate, said the matter will be argued before whichever judge the CJI, the master of roster, sends it to.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan said he was appearing in a contempt petition arising from a judgement of the Supreme Court on the scam.
He said the police were asked to seek vacation of a stay granted by the high court concerned in similar cases but instead the agency agreed for a de-novo (fresh) probe in the matter.
CJI Chandrachud said he will assign a bench after examining the matter.
