SC comes out with new procedure for urgent listing of cases before benches

The Supreme Court has come out with a fresh notification on the procedure to be adopted by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud for mentioning of cases for their urgent listing and hearing from July 3.

The top court is set to reopen on July 3 after the summer vacation.

Miscellaneous fresh matters which are verified on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday shall be automatically listed on the following Monday, the top court said in its circular issued on June 28 by the Registrars of judicial administration.

The circular also said that the lawyers seeking listing of verified fresh matters prior to such allotted dates will now be needed to submit their mentioning pro formas by 3 PM, to get their cases heard the next day.

For those seeking listing on the same day, the pro formas have to be submitted by 10:30 AM to the mentioning officer along with a letter of urgency, it said.

The CJI will then take a call on the same during lunch hours or 'as the exigency may warrant', it said.

For after-notice and regular hearing matters that are sought to be urgently listed, the lawyers have to first go before the mentioning officer with the pro forma and urgency letter.

No mentionings other than those in the mentioning lists uploaded a day prior shall be permitted for such matters, it said.

As per the procedures, the lawyers and litigants are allowed to mention their cases for out-of-turn listing and hearing by putting forth the ground of urgency before the CJI's court.

Recently, the top court has also notified a fresh roster for allocation of new cases to 15 benches from July 3 and the first three courts presided over by the CJI and the two senior-most judges respectively will hear PILs.