How the Supreme Court hears cases

Sub: Polity

Sec: Judiciary

Context:

The Supreme Court of India faces a significant backlog of cases, with over 82,000 pending cases. To address this issue, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna has implemented a new case prioritization system.
The Court is currently focusing on special leave petitions (SLPs), which are appeals from lower courts that the Supreme Court has yet to admit.

Special Leave Petitions (SLPs):

SLPs are discretionary appeals where the SC needs to decide whether to grant leave (permission to appeal) to the petitioners. SC has to grant “leave” for them to be heard.
It is provided for under Article 136 of the Constitution of India.
These cases often involve quick decisions regarding admission or rejection. Dismissal of these cases means an immediate reduction in pendency.
Once a case is admitted, it becomes a “regular hearing matter” that requires detailed hearings before the court.
The court has been hearing these cases for three days of the workweek (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays), and has kept only Mondays and Fridays for fresh cases.
In effect, the SC is limiting the listing of cases in which a detailed hearing is required.

Statistics:

According to the book Court on Trial: A Data-Driven Account of the Supreme Court of India, the SC accepts only 14% of SLPs that are filed.
Appeals, the bulk of which are SLPs, comprise approximately 92.4% of the court’s docket, and a typical hearing on whether to admit an SLP lasts for just 1 minute and 33 seconds on average, says the book.
But once a case is taken up for full hearing by the court, it takes more than four years on average before the judgment is passed, with many cases taking “twice as long or longer”.

SC Registry:

The administrative machine of the court is known as the “Registry”.
The SC Registry has two wings, the administration and the judicial. Each of these wings is divided into various divisions, with their own administrative responsibilities such as case listing, technology, issues related to the court and buildings, human resources, etc.
Each division is headed by a Registrar, and the Registry as a whole is led by the Secretary General, who is the highest administrative officer in the Supreme Court, and reports to the CJI.

Process of Case Filing and Listing:

Lawyers authorized as Advocate-on-Record (AoRs) file cases on behalf of clients. Cases are submitted through the filing counter or the SC’s e-Filing portal.
After submission, the case is checked by a “dealing assistant” for defects such as incorrect party information or missing signatures. Defective petitions must be corrected within 90 days.
Once the case is defect-free, it is registered and assigned a diary number.
After registration, the case is sent to the listing department, which schedules the case for hearing.
If the case is not dismissed immediately, the SC issues notice to the other party for their response. The case is then heard as an “after notice miscellaneous matter.”
If the case is admitted, it moves forward for a full hearing. If dismissed, the case is closed.