Judicial time is precious, says SC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that the "judicial time is precious" and court's priority was to reduce the pendency of cases. The court while hearing the Essar leaks case told advocate Prashant Bhushan to file better documents supporting his Public Interest Litigation (PIL) within six weeks.

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi told Bhushan who was appearing for a non-governmental organisation seeking a Special Investigation Team led probe in the Essar leaks, that the court's priority was to reduce pendency of cases instead of focusing on such PILs.

"65 death references and over 2000 appeals from people who have spent half of their sentence have been pending before it," the bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.

CJI Gogoi told advocate Bhushan, "You want us to destroy the nexus between politicians, bureaucrats, corporates, journalists... We are on the same page."

"Judicial time is precious. I want my judges to focus on these cases. We have to set our priorities right. What do you want a SIT for?" the bench added.

The petition filed by NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, claimed that the confidential information indicates how Essar has been cultivating ministers, politicians, bureaucrats and journalists in order to serve its business interests.