The Supreme Court has released a new roster of work saying that PILs would now be heard by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde and three other senior most judges of the apex court. In the roster of allocation of work that took effect from 26 November, CJI Bobde has kept Public Interest Litigations and letter petitions to himself along with Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra and R F Nariman. The new roster is slightly different from the last time when the outgoing CJI Ranjan Gogoi had kept PIL matters for top five judges of the apex court, including the CJI.
Besides PIL matters, CJI Bobde has kept with him matters of contempt, election, habeas corpus, social justice, direct and indirect tax cases, among others. The CJI will also be dealing with criminal matters and cases related to commissions of enquiry, company law, Monopolistic and Restrictive Trade Practices, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Reserve Bank of India, among others. As per the new roster, bench headed by Justice Ramana would deal with matters pertaining to armed forces, paramilitary, compensation, criminal and ordinary civil matters and issues related to judicial officers, employees of Supreme Court, high courts, district courts and tribunals, among others.
Justice Ramana will also be hearing matters related to eviction under public premises act, special leave petitions challenging arbitration matters, admirality and maritime laws and issues of commercial transactions. Similarly, bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra would also deal with land acquisition and requisition matters, quota in admission to medical colleges, appeal against orders of statutory bodies and issue of establishment and recognition of educational institutions, among others. Justice Mishra will look into indirect tax matters, contempt of court, ordinary civil issues and admission or transfer to engineering and medical colleges. Besides PIL matters, Justice R F Nariman would look into cases of family law and hear matters related to armed and paramilitary forces, cases of leases, contracts by government and local bodies. Justice R Banumathi led bench would hear matters related to labour, rent act, land laws and agricultural tenancies, among others. Besides the CJI, Justices Ramana, Mishra, Nariman and Banumathi are part of the apex court Collegium. Hope the new roster will result in speedy and effective disposal of cases.