NEW DELHI: Hearing a petition filed by senior lawyer Shanti Bhushan in connection with the SC judge roster system, Supreme Court said there is no dispute that the CJI is the master of the roster and first among equals.

In its verdict SC also refused to interfere with the petition of Bhushan on Friday.

The Top court said that the CJI cannot be deduced to mean Collegiums of five senior-most judges in the issue of allocation of cases as it will make the day to day functioning hard.

The Supreme Court rule comes in response to a plea lodged by former law minister Shanti Bhushan challenging the present roster practice of allocation of cases in the top court by the Chief Justice of India.

After Hearing the petition, the SC ruled there is no dispute in the matter that “CJI is the Master of Roster”.

In his plea Shanti Bhushan had alleged that "master of roster" cannot be an "unguided and unbridled" optional power, exercised randomly by the CJI by hand-picking the benches of select judges or by assigning cases to particular judges.

However, He had asserted that the plea and its prayer was to make stronger the court and was not directed against any individual.