Most of us may not be aware that there are more than 71,000 cases pending in the Supreme Court (SC), out of this about 56,000 are civil matters and about 15,000 are criminal matters. The longest pending case before a Constitution Bench is the case of the Central Board of Dawoodi Bohra community v State of Maharashtra which has been pending since 1986.
Now in a big step towards unclogging the top judiciary burdened with heavy pendency of cases, the SC has, in one massive sweep, binned about 13,140 old diarised but unregistered cases, including one filed more than three decades ago. An order issued by the Registrar Judicial of SC a few days back said that all these cases were filed more than 8 years ago but the defects pointed out by the Registry to the respective counsel or petitioners in person were not corrected/cured. The cases got the diary numbers prior to the year 2014. These petitions just sat idle in the Registry, adding to the ever-growing pendency of cases.
The order by SC Registrar said the parties to the cases seemingly do not intend to prosecute the litigations any further as they did not cure the defects even after a lapse of several years. Under the earlier rules, the parties concerned were to cure the defects within 28 days, which was extended to 90 days.
Now as of 1st September 2022 around 12,100 cases were pending in SC, which is of miscellaneous matters which are incomplete or not ready and where preliminaries have to be completed. There are more than 490 matters before various constitution benches. The present Chief Justice of India (CJI) has laid particular emphasis on clearing the pending cases and under him, SC has adopted a new system of filing cases. From 29th August, when the new system was launched, and till 14th September 5,200 cases were decided by the SC as against 1,135 fresh filings.
Now, what are the main powers of SC
1 Power to punish for contempt (civil or criminal) of court. Civil contempt means willful disobedience to any judgment. Criminal contempt means doing any act which lowers the authority of the court or causes interference in judicial proceedings.
2 Judicial review, to examine the constitutionality of legislative enactments and executive orders. The grounds of review is limited by Parliamentary legislation or rules made by SC.
3 Deciding authority regarding the election of President and Vice President.
4 Enquiring Authority in the conduct and behavior of UPSC members.
5 Withdraw cases pending before HC and dispose of the same by themselves.
6 Revisory Jurisdiction-The SC under Article 137 is empowered to review any judgment or order made by it with a view to removing any mistake or error that might have crept in the judgment or order.
7 The SC is a court of record as its decisions are of evidentiary value and can not be questioned in any court.
Other powers include the appointment of ad hoc judges, the appointment of retired judges of SC or HC with the consent of the President for heading any inquiry commission, the appointment of acting chief justice, and removal of SC judges.
Jurisdiction
The original jurisdiction (Article 131) extends to cases originating in the SC and states that the SC of India has original and exclusive jurisdiction in cases between :
The government and one hand and one or more states on the other, the Government and one or more states on one side, and other states on the other.
Appellate Jurisdiction( Article 132, 133, and 134)- The appeal lies with the SC against HC in the following4 categories:
1 Constitutional matters-if the HC certifies that the case involves a substantial question of law that needs interpretation of the constitution.
2 Civil matters-if the case involves a substantial question of law of general importance.
3 Criminal matters- if the HC has on appeal reversed the order of acquittal of an accused and sentenced him to death or has withdrawn for trial before itself any case from subordinate court.
4 Special leave to appeal is granted by SC if it is satisfied that the case does not involve any question of law. However, it cannot be passed in case of judgment passed by a court or tribunal of armed forces.
Advisory Jurisdiction (Article 143)- This authorizes the President of India to seek an advisory opinion from the SC in the two categories of matters:
1 Matters of public importance.
2 Any question arising out of pre-constitution, treaty agreement, engagement, Sanad, or other similar instruments.
So these are the powers and jurisdiction of SC.
In the recent past, it has so happened that SC time is being wasted by the people, especially the corrupt politicians who approach SC on any trivial matter when they are caught by the investigation agencies. There are other cases also which should be decided by High Court (HC) but land in SC, and there are many other cases where the judgment is pronounced by HC, but still, the advocates take the matter to SC against the judgment of HC, even when it is evident that SC will not reverse the judgment of HC, this is done as the petitioner wants to gain time before the final judgment by SC, thus wasting the time of SC. All these attribute to the piling of cases in SC
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
19th September 2022.