Justice Oka in his address called for debates on constitutional subjects and constructive criticism of the judiciary.
He said that the Supreme Court discourages Article 32 (enforcement of fundamental rights) petitions, given its mounting case arrears.
“Some may argue that the Supreme Court should entertain all Article 32 pleas without sending them to the High Courts. But we are not living in an ideal world and if there was no pendency of cases then the scene would have been different. There are 80,000 cases pending in the Supreme Court. We are not only a constitutional court but also an appellate court … when we have mounting arrears we need to fix our priorities.”
On a dedicated bench to hear such cases, Justice Oka said,
“I had only one answer. This question has to be before the master of roster and no one else.”
Source: Barandbench
