Singh promptly approached the CJI and sought clarity on the matter, minutes before the arguments were slated to start in the Article 370 case being heard by a five-judge Constitution bench of the Court.
“I am really sorry to do this but, a clarification is needed whether Court 3, milord Hon’ble Justice Bose’s bench can hear mentioning. There is something very urgent,” Singh told the bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud.
The CJI, in turn, assured the senior counsel that the matter would be listed if an email is sent.
“There is a provision in the SOP. Circulate an email. I have said that however urgent something is, once the mentioning is not available or the mentioning is over, an email will be put up to me by the Registrar, listing. I will pass the orders immediately. Just read the SOP, it has everything in that,” the CJI said.
The Chief Justice added that he has been liberal with allowing mentioning requests since the five senior most judges would be sitting in the Constitution bench from today to finish hearing the Article 370 case.
“Yesterday, every mentioning request that was made until late night yesterday was attended to. In fact, I was, in fact, a little more liberal because I knew that this is going to happen, that we at the first five are going to be in a Constitution bench. All requests have been granted. If there is something over and above that, the SOP has a provision even for that. Follow the SOP as I’ll give you a date immediately,” the CJI told Singh.
“We will send that email immediately. There is something very dire,” Singh responded.
Source: Barandbench
