"My endeavour is and will be to make the Supreme Court and high courts people's courts which can be approached at any time beyond working hours in legal emergencies," CJI Surya Kant told TOI.The CJI said one of his priorities is to set up as many constitution benches as possible to deal with pending petitions raising several important constitutional issues - like the one thrown up by a bunch of petitions challenging validity of special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which started from Bihar and is now being carried out in a dozen states. In case of a legal emergency, a citizen, irrespective of status, can knock on the doors of Supreme Court even at midnight to seek redress of an urgent grievance and seek protection of individual rights and liberty," CJI Kant said.There will never be another case like the one arising from settlement dispute between Ambani brothers in which lawyers argued for 26 days in SC. "This is to ensure that poor litigants not only get free legal assistance but also an equal share of court time during hearing of their cases," the CJI said.Apart from mandatory submission of written submissions not exceeding five pages at least three days prior to the hearing, SC has issued a circular saying, "Senior advocates, arguing counsel and/or advocate-on-record, shall submit the timelines for making oral arguments in all post-notice and regular hearing matters, at least a day prior to the commencement of the hearing of the case.
Author: Dhananjay Mahapatra
Published at: 2025-12-30 22:47:09
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