New CJI Surya Kant disallows oral mentions, takes up 17 cases on day one

On the first day as the CJI Justice Surya Kant on Monday set a new procedural norm that mentioning cases for urgent listing must be made in writing and oral requests will be entertained under extraordinary circumstances like in cases of death penalty and personal liberty A bench led by Justice Kant heard 17 cases in proceedings spanning around two hours on his first day as the Chief Justice of India CJIJustice Kant formally assumed charge as the 53rd CJI shortly after taking oath in Hindi in the name of God at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Arriving at the Supreme Court for the first time as CJI in the forenoon he paid floral tributes at the statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr B R Ambedkar on the court premises He then presided over a threejudge bench also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Atul S Chandurkar in the heritage courtroom number oneAs proceedings commenced around noon the CJI pronounced a judgement on a plea filed by Himachal Pradesh against a private firm Just after the pronouncement Supreme Court AdvocatesonRecord Association SCAORA President Vipin Nair welcomed the new Chief Justice in the packed courtroom A lawyer greeted him as a farmers son who has become the CJI drawing a brief smile Justice Kant responded Thank you I can see young lawyers from Chandigarh alsoGetting down to business the new CJI clarified that barring extraordinary situations requests for urgent listing must be made in writing through a mentioning slip rather than by oral mentioning If you have any urgent mentioning give your mentioning slip along with the cause of urgency the registrar will examine and in those matters if we find an element of urgency will take it up he saidWhen the counsel pressed for the urgency in the matter Justice Kant said Unless there are extraordinary circumstances involved when somebodys liberty is involved there is a question of death sentence etc then only will I list it Otherwise please make a mention the registry will take a call and list the matter Prior to the CJIs observations a counsel made an urgent mention of a matter relating to the demolition of a canteenEarlier former CJI Sanjiv Khanna stopped the practice of oral mentioning of cases for urgent listing in the top court However it was revived by his successor Justice B R Gavai Usually lawyers orally mention cases before the CJI for urgent listing before the benches Justice Kant also attempted to encourage a junior counsel who had sought an adjournment on behalf of a senior advocate Take this opportunity you should argue If you argue we may give a little discount he remarked lightly hinting at the chances of the matter being dismissedThe junior lawyer however declined stating he had no instructions to argue In another matter families of victims of alleged extrajudicial killings in Manipur sought a courtmonitored probe Their counsel submitted that the families deserve to know at least what happened Justice Kant noted that a probe was already underway and issued notice for the limited purpose of finding out the status of the investigation by the NIAThe bench led by Justice Kant heard an appeal challenging an Allahabad High Court decision refusing to order the removal of a lawyer the husband of a judge from the post of standing counsel for the Uttar Pradesh government Cautioning against personal targeting CJI Kant said There are some issues to be handled on the administrative side Please do not name or target anyone Later the petitioners counsel sought permission to withdraw the appeal which the court allowedPresident Droupadi Murmu administered the oath to Justice Kant at a brief ceremony attended by dignitaries including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former CJI Gavai He will serve as CJI for nearly 15 months before demitting office on February 9 2027 on attaining the age of 65 Later in the day Murmu hosted a dinner at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre to welcome CJI Kant Vice President C P Radhakrishnan Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Home Minister Amit Shah former CJI Gavai and other dignitaries including judges of the Supreme Court and chief justices of the High Courts also attended the dinnerThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever