A Supreme Court Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul has said the new listing system hardly gives any time to hear cases post-lunch.
"The new listing system is not giving adequate time to take up matters fixed for hearing like the present case as there are number of matters within the span of ‘Afternoon’ session," a Bench of Justices Kaul and A.S. Oka recorded in a judicial order, adjourning a case to November 15.
It is rather curious that the apex court has adjourned a case because of the workload caused by its own system of listing cases.
The new listing system is one of the sweeping reforms introduced by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit immediately after he took over as top judge on August 27.
The volume of cases being listed before the various Benches of the Supreme Court has grown exponentially since Chief Justice Lalit assumed office.
On Mondays and Fridays, the Benches hear anything between 60 to over 70 cases a day.
On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the judges have to divide their pre-lunch session between Constitution Bench matters and long-pending regular matters before three-judge Benches. The post-lunch hours between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. witness combinations of two-judge Benches hearing over 30 miscellaneous cases a day.
A senior judge had recently described the court's daily board as "chock-a-block".
Recently, senior advocate Dushyant Dave had asked the Bench to give some time for lawyers to have lunch. Lawyers who find their long-pending cases suddenly listed have sought adjournments, saying they need time to prepare and engage senior arguing counsel.
The flurry of activity has come amid an alarming increase in pendency of up to 71,000 cases. Constitution Bench cases have been pending for years together. CJI Lalit, who retires on November 8, has made it clear in no uncertain terms that he wants to shrink the backlog.
