Chief Justice of India is first among equals: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court said today that the post of Chief Justice of India(CJI) is the top institution and he is the first to decide on matters related to allocation of cases and setting up of benches.

Responding to a petition, the apex court said that that CJIis the "first among equals".

Justice Chandrachud, writing the judgment for the bench, referred to constitutional schemes and said: "the Chief Justice of India is first among equals and has the authority to decide allocation of cases and setting up of benches".

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The apex court's judgement came in response to a petition filed by a lawyer of the Allahabad High Court, Ashok Pande.

A bench comprising CJI Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud dismissed a PIL seeking framing of guidelines for rational and transparent allocation of cases and constitution of benches to hear them.

Since the CJI is a high constitutional functionary, there cannot be "any distrust about the responsibilities he discharges" to ensure that the Supreme Court to carries out the work required under the Constitution, the order stated.

The petition was filed following the January 12th press conference held by the four Supreme Court judges - Justices J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph.The judges had alleged improper allocation of cases by the CJI.

The judges had held that rules should be framed for constituting benches and allocating jurisdiction to different benchin the Supreme Court and the High Court.

During the controversial press conference in January, Justice Chelameshwar had said democracy in this country would not survive without an institution as important as the Supreme Court, and a free judiciary.

"We owe a responsibility to the institution and the nation. Our efforts have failed in convincing CJI to take steps to protect the institution," the judges had said.