Justice U U Lalit will become the 49th CJI on Saturday and listed out three main things that he will focus on during his tenure.
New Delhi: In his 74-day tenure, Chief Justice of India-designate Justice U U Lalit said, he will focus and ensure at least three things, the first being one Constitution bench in the Supreme Court which will function round-the-year.
Justice Lalit, who will become the 49th CJI on Saturday, said the two other areas are listing cases for hearing in the Supreme Court and mentioning urgent matters.
He was speaking at a function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) which was held to bid farewell to outgoing CJI N V Ramana. “I have always believed that the role of the top court is to lay down law with clarity and the best possible way to do it is to have larger benches as early as possible so that the issues get clarified immediately,” Justice Lalit said.
He added, “So, we will strive hard to say that yes, we will always have at least one constitution bench functioning all throughout the year.”
On listing of matters, he said, “….I must assure you that we will strive hard to make the listing as simple, as clear, and as transparent as possible”. On mentioning urgent matters, Justice Lalit said he will certainly look into it. “I will have a word with all my learned colleagues on the bench and we will certainly sort that out and very shortly, you will have a clear-cut regime where any urgent matter can freely be mentioned before the respective courts.”
Hailing Justice Ramana, Justice Lalit listed out two “stand out” achievements, including over 250 appointments of judges in the high courts across the country due to recommendations made by the Supreme Court collegium in the last about 14 months or so.
The second facet, Justice Lalit said, was during the Chief Justices’ and Chief Ministers’ conference where Justice Ramana forcefully tried to persuade all the chief ministers and chief justices to concentrate on issues concerning infrastructure in the district and lower judiciary. “That was remarkable,” he said.
