In a move that will bring down the number of appeals against all sorts of orders of High Courts, the Supreme Court has entrusted to a five-judge Constitution Bench laying down guidelines for entertaining special leave petitions.
A Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and R.M. Lodha, in an order passed on Friday, warned: “If SLPs are entertained against all and sundry orders passed by any court or tribunal, then this court after some time will collapse under its own burden. Sadly the position today is that it is under pressure because of the immense volume of cases, judges do not get sufficient time to deliberate on cases, which they deserve, and this is bound to affect the quality of our judgments.”
The Bench referred the issue to Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan for posting the matter before a Constitution Bench, while disposing of an SLP filed by Mathai alias Joby against the orders of the Kerala High Court, which upheld the rejection by the trial court of his plea for a second forensic examination of a disputed will.
The Bench said: “Under the constitutional scheme, the last court in ordinary cases was meant to be the High Court. The Supreme Court as the apex court was meant to deal with important issues like constitutional questions, questions of law of general importance or where grave injustice had been done.”
But “nowadays all kinds of SLPs are being filed in this court against every kind of order. Consequently, the arrears are mounting and mounting and this court has been converted practically into an ordinary appellate court, which, in our opinion, was never the intention of Article 136 of the Constitution. Now the time has come when it should be decided by a Constitution Bench in what kind of cases SLPs should be entertained under Article 136.”
The Bench noted that “Article 136, no doubt, states that the Supreme Court may in its discretion, grant special leave to appeal from any judgment, decree, determination, sentence or order in any cause or matter passed or made by any court or tribunal in the territory of India. However, it is not mentioned in Article 136 in what kind of cases the said discretion should be exercised. Hence, some broad guidelines need to be laid down now by a Constitution Bench, otherwise this court will be flooded [and in fact is being flooded] with all kind of SLPs even frivolous ones and the arrears will keep mounting and a time will come when the functioning of this court becomes impossible.”
