Justice Mishra sits singly as vacation judge

In a departure from normal practice when a bench of two judges hear and decide the matter listed before the court during summer vacations, the Supreme Court on Wednesday saw Justice Arun Mishra sitting singly to take up the listed matters.

A lawyer who is practicing in the apex court for a long time and was present in the court on Wednesday said that he has not in his long association with the top court seen a judge sitting singly during vacations and deciding the matters. He said that during the period Chief Justice P.N. Bhagwati (July 12, 1985-December 20, 1986), the judges used to sit singly during summer vacations.

Justice Mishra will sit singly to hear the matter listed before him on Thursday and Friday too.

However, apex court sources said that there was nothing unusual as under the Order II Rule 6 of Supreme Court Rules, 2013the chief justice could during summer vacation or winter holidays appoint even one judge to hear a matter of urgent importance.

This says: "The Chief Justice may appoint one or more judges to hear during summer vacation or winter holidays all matters of an urgent nature which under these rules may be heard by a judge silting singly, and, whenever necessary, he may likewise appoint a division court for the hearing of urgent cases during the vacation which require to be heard by a bench of judges."

The apex court on June 17 in a partial modification of its May 15 notification had said that Justice Mishra would sit singly for three days from June 24 to June 26.

On the first two days of the week - Monday and Tuesday, a bench of Justice M.Y.Eqbal and Justice Mishra heard the matters.