SC drafts new roster; CJI to only hear PIL cases

The Supreme Court's new roster system was drafted on Sunday, two days post the retirement of Justice Jasti Chelameswar.

The new roster stated the kind of cases each judge would hear and will be effective from Monday, July 2.

It is the first time the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Deepak Misra has made the roster public since February 1, after four judges of the Apex court held a press conference making allegations against the CJI of allocating cases arbitrarily.

As per the new roster system, the CJI Court will only hear the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) cases.

Meanwhile, Justice Madan Bhimrao Lokur will hear cases pertaining to land acquisition, ecological imbalances and protection of wildlife, social jurist, consumer protection matters, while, Justice Kurian Joseph will hear labour law, rent act, family law and contempt of court cases.

Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri will hear direct and indirect tax cases, election and judicial officers cases, whereas, Justice S. A. Bobde will hear cases related to academics, compensation and admission to educational institutions other than engineering and medical.

On a related note, Justice Chelameswar, who retired on Friday, led three Supreme Court judges- Justices Kurian Joseph, Madan Bhimrao Lokur and Ranjan Gogoi against the CJI in a historic press conference on January 12.

In the presser, he cast doubts over his 'selective' allocation of cases, including the sensitive ones such as the death of Central Bureau of Investigation judge B. H. Loya.