Need for the Multiple Supreme Courts

Need for the Multiple Supreme Courts

 

Context 79,813 cases pending in supreme court.

CJI D.Y. Chandrachud announced his intent to create Constitution Benches of varied strengths as a permanent feature of the Court.

Source
  1. The Hindu Editorial on 28-11-2023 ( for the issue)

https://epaper.thehindu.com/reader

  1. Indian Polity by Krishna Pradeep (For the static subject)
UPSC Syllabus Relevance Prelims: Indian Polity

Mains:

GS 2: Indian Polity

Structure, Organization and Functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary

Historical background of the supreme court
  1. There were 3 supreme courts in India before independence –

a.      Calcutta – 1774

b.     Madras – 1800

c.      Bombay – 1823

  1. The three supreme courts were replaced by high courts through 1861 Indian High courts act.
  2. Federal court was established in 1937 by 1935 Government of India act.
  3. Privy council in the House of Lords at British parliament was the highest court of appeal.
  4. Supreme court was established on January 28th 1950, two days after the commencement of constitution.
  5. Supreme court has replaced the privy council and federal court.
Constitutional provisions
  1. Article 124 to 147 of Part V  of the Constitution deal with the organisation, independence, jurisdiction, powers, procedures of the Supreme Court.
  2. The Parliament is also authorized to regulate them.
Number of judges in the supreme court:

The number may be increased by the parliament by law.

Year Number of judges
1950 07+1
1956 10+1
1960 13+1
1978 17+1
1986 25+1
2009 30+1
2019 33+1

è  The number of judges will be increased based on the work burden.

Roster system in the supreme court Roster system = method of allocating the cases among the judges

The present roster system came into force in 2018.

The Roster master is the chief justice

Case allocation method in the New Roster system:

Note: Constitutional benches are constituted with judges in odd numbers from 5 – 7 – 9 – 11 – 13 etc.

 

Benches Types of cases allocated
Single judge Bench 41 types of petty cases
Two judge bench Deals with the appeals from high courts
Three judge bench Civil and criminal cases involving question of law
Constitutional bench of 5 or more Constitutional disputes

Largest bench so far was a 13 judge bench constated in 1973 Keshava Anad Bharati case.

Days for case listing
Nature of the cases Day for allotment
New cases Monday & Friday
Existing cases Wednesday & Thursday
Judgements in the constitutional cases Tuesday and Friday
Benches of the Chief Justice Every constitutional bench must be headed by the CJI.

Other cases to be headed by the CJI include –

  1. Writ petitions
  2. Special Leave Petitions
  3. Federal disputes
  4. Public Interest Litigations
  5. Social Justice cases etc.
Jurisdiction of the supreme court
Jurisdiction Article
Court of record 129
Original jurisdiction 131
Appellate jurisdiction 132, 133, 134
Special leave petition 136
Advisory jurisdiction 143
Writ jurisdiction 32
Present work burden The supreme court is taking up the following cases on a daily basis –

  1. Fundamental rights cases
  2. Federal disputes
  3. Appeals from high courts and tribunals
  4. Special leave cases
  5. Film prohibitions / restrictions
  6. Cases of a police commissioner abusing his position.
  7. Public interest litigations including frivolous
  8. Quran related cases
  9. Appeals to remove the terms secularism and socialism be removed from the Preamble to the Constitution.
  10. Police reforms cases

The list is only indicative but not exhaustive.

Court is approached for every aspect of life and governance.

Number of Judgements given by the supreme court In 2022:

Total judgements given : 1,263

Constitutional bench judgements: 4

è This is too low compared to number of pending cases.

è Average number of judgements in the constitutional cases: 8 to 10.

Need for Division benches First proposal:

10th law commission in March 1984 proposed that the Supreme Court be split into two divisions:

  1. the Constitutional Division – to deal only the issues of constitutional law.
  2. the Legal Division – To deal with the rest of the issues.

This idea was also supported by the Eleventh Law Commission (1988)

Need for National court of appeal:

 

The supreme court in Bihar Legal Support Society v. Chief Justice of India (1986)

It was “desirable” to establish a National Court of Appeal, that would be able to entertain special leave petitions.

This would allow the Supreme Court to entertain only

  1. Constitutional disputes
  2. Public law-related questions.
Need for Four Benches:

There will be total 5 Supreme courts –

Court of appeal – 4

Constitutional court – 1 

The 229th Law Commission Report (2009) recommended four regional benches to be located in

  1. Delhi
  2. Chennai or Hyderabad
  3. Kolkata
  4. Mumbai

They would be the courts of appeal. They hear non – constitutional issues i.e. civil cases and criminal cases.

They also act as the court of appeal.

Six judges from each region at four regional benches take up appellate responsibility.

Note:

The existing supreme court in Delhi will be a constitutional court which deals with –

  1. Constitutional disputes
  2. Federal disputes
Regional proximity is the basis of cases in the supreme court In the present set up the supreme court is not approached by the people from all places in the country.

Most of the cases are from the states which have more proximity to Delhi.

  1. Punjab and Haryana High Court
  2. Allahabad High Court
  3. Delhi High Court

Courts far away from the apex court had

fewer appeals filed, due to both difficulties in accessibility and costs.

Advantages of establishing multiple supreme courts
  1. To make justice more widely available
  2. To ensure less expensive justice
  3. To make the court accessible to all parts of the country.
  4. Reduces the burden of the apex court by redistributing the present cases across all the newly proposed four supreme courts.
  5. More People can easily access the supreme court because of the proximity.
  6. Greater judicial stability and consistency can be ensured by explicitly distinguishing cases filed under constitutional authority from those filed under appellate and review jurisdiction.
Issues in establishing benches The 2009 proposal of the national law commission was rejected by the supreme court on following grounds –

  1. It is against the integrated nature of the Indian judiciary
  2. Increases the judicial expenditure.
Way forward
  • The merits are more than demerits in establishing the benches.
  • The benches of the supreme court may be constituted by leveraging article 130.
  • The supreme court with the approval of the President may constitute new benches.
Conclusion A Constitution Bench (V. Vasanth kumar v. H.C. Bhatia) is analysing these issues and contemplating measures to protect a citizen’s basic right to access the Supreme Court. Under the guidance of the CJI, there is an opportunity to address this structural gap in the Supreme Court by designating several of the court’s appeal benches as regional benches.
Mains Model Question
  • There is a need for revamping the structure of the supreme court. Explain the need for restructuring and suggest measures for the revamping. 
Model answer directions Introduction:

Refer about the increasing pendency of the cases in supreme court.

Main body:

  1. Reasons for the revamp – you may mention about the advantages of creating benches of the supreme court.
  2. Suggest measures –

Mention about the Law commission recommendations to revamp by constituting the benches of supreme court

You may also refer about the proposal of CJI Chandra Chud

Conclusion:

Refer the V. Vasanth kumar v. H.C. Bhatia case

Model MCQ Consider the following statements –

  1. There were multiple supreme courts in India before establishing the federal court
  2. Federal court was not the final court of appeal in India
  3. Supreme court of India did not came into force along with the constitution

How many above statements are correct?

  1. One statement
  2. Two statements
  3. Three statements
  4. None of the above are correct.
Explanatory answer – Answer – C

Statement 1 is correct:

  • There were 3 supreme courts in India before independence –

Calcutta – 1774

Madras – 1800

Bombay – 1823

Statement 2 correct:

  • Privy council in the House of Lords at British parliament was the highest court of appeal for Indians. They can appeal against the decisions of the federal court.

Statement 3 correct because:

  • Supreme court was established on January 28th 1950. Two days after the commencement of constitution.
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