
The Supreme Court has agreed to examine former law minister Shanti Bhushan's plea challenging existing roster practice of allocation of cases by Chief Justice of India.
A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan sought the assistance of Attorney General K K Venugopal and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in dealing with the PIL stating that the CJI cannot exercise arbitrary power in allocation of cases.
The petition was mentioned by Shanti Bhishan's son, advocate Prashant Bhushan, before the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Chelaneswar, on Thursday but he had refused to hear the petition.
The plea, Prashant Bhushan said, challenges the master of roster concept and hence the Chief Justice of India can't deal with it.
"I don't want one more reversal of my order in next 24 hours. This is why I can't do it. Please understand my difficulty," Justice Chelameswar had told Prashant Bhushan.
He said the reasons were too obvious and he would not like to deal with the matter.
"Someone is running a relentless tirade against me that I am up to grab something. There is nothing I can do much in this. I am sorry, you please understand my difficulty," Justice Chelameswar told Bhushan.
Prashant Bhushan then rushed to Chief Justice Dipak Misra's court and mentioned the matter for listing expeditiously.