New Delhi: Famous Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan has made serious allegations of violation of the rules of the Supreme Court. On Wednesday (December 6), he wrote a letter to the Supreme Court registry complaining about the listing of cases against two lawyers and a journalist before the bench headed by Justice Bela M Trivedi. He said in his letter that the Registry has arbitrarily violated the listing rules of the Supreme Court by listing the case before Justice Trivedi. He has also claimed that in this process the Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud has been sidelined. These matters were to be placed before the Honorable CJI.
The case is related to Tripura: The news says that the case in which lawyer Bhushan has been accused is related to Tripura. In November 2021, a petition was filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a case of communal violence due to social media posts of a lawyer and journalist, which is being heard by a bench headed by Justice Chandrachud. The court had also served notice on the petition to the Tripura state and the central government, demanding that the case be quashed. Along with this, the validity of Section 2 (1) (o) of UAPA was challenged which also defines 'unlawful activity'. Bhushan has said in his letter to the registry that even after this the benches headed by CJI Chandrachud had passed orders in this case.
Case listed before another bench: Prashant Bhushan has alleged that other petitions challenging the provisions of UAPA have also been listed before the bench of Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Trivedi (junior judge of the bench). Let us tell you that Bhushan claimed that this is a violation of Clause 15 of the new scheme for automatic listing of cases, as the case should follow the bench headed by CJI Chandrachud.
What is the Supreme Court order?: However, in an order dated October 31, 2023, a bench of Justices Bose and Trivedi directed that the case be listed "before the appropriate bench". However, as per Section 15, apart from listing the case before the Chief Justice, it was also listed on November 29 before the bench headed by Justice Trivedi, who now also chairs the bench.
Bhushan has said that the cases pending for Sunny follow the senior presiding judge. He is also being listed before another judge only when the senior presiding judge is not available. Despite the availability of Justice Chandrachud, Prashant Bhushan has termed this move of listing the case in some other bench as 'surprising'. Requested the concerned registrar to 'rectify the arbitrariness' by January 10, when the case is scheduled to be listed for next hearing.
Warning of legal action if mistake is not rectified: Not only this, Bhushan continued his point and also requested that the petitioner be informed whether there is any specific administrative direction to list the case before Justice Bose or Justice Trivedi. . If this is not done, he has also warned of taking legal action.