REGIONAL
BENCHES OF THE SUPREME COURT – POLITY
News:
Stalin calls for regional
bench of Supreme Court
What's
in the news?
●
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin requested Chief
Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud to look into three demands: a Supreme Court
Bench in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata; social justice and inclusivity in the
appointment of judges; and making Tamil the language of the Madras High Court,
besides English.
Supreme
Court - Backdrop:
●
The Indian Supreme Court was established
on January 28, 1950.
●
Earlier, it was called the Federal Court
of India, established by the Government
of India Act, 1935. It was the highest court that used to hear appeals from
the high courts.
●
During British Rule, the Supreme Court
functioned from Madras, Calcutta and Bombay.
●
Subsequently, with the enactment of the Indian High Courts Act, 1861, these
courts were declared as high courts.
Constitutional
Provision:
●
Under Article
130, the Supreme Court shall sit in Delhi or in any other places as decided
by the Chief Justice of India after
taking approval of the president.
●
Supreme Court Rules give the Chief Justice
of India the power to constitute Benches - he can, for instance, have a
Constitution Bench of seven judges in New Delhi, and set up smaller Benches in,
say, four or six places across the country.
Demand
for Regional Benches:
●
Recently, the Vice-President Venkaiah
Naidu in his speech has suggested that the Supreme Court institute four
regional Benches to tackle the enormous backlog of cases, and to ensure their
speedy disposal.
●
He also endorsed the recommendation of the
Law Commission of India that the top court should be split into two divisions.
What
the Law Commissions said?
●
In 1986, the 95th Report of the Law Commission proposed the division of the
Supreme Court into a
a.
Constitutional Division
b.
Legal Division.
●
Only matters of Constitutional law may be
assigned to the proposed Constitutional
Division.
●
A Constitution Bench be set up at Delhi to
deal with "Constitutional and other allied issues”.
●
The Eighteenth Law Commission, in 2009,
recommended the setting up of four
Cassation Benches in the
a.
Northern region/zone at Delhi
b.
Southern region/zone at Chennai/Hyderabad
c.
Eastern region/zone at Kolkata
d.
Western region/zone at Mumbai.
●
The function of these four Cassation
Benches would be to handle appellate work arising from High Court
orders/judgments of that particular region.
Need
for Regional Benches:
1.
Pendency of cases:
●
The pendency of cases in the Supreme Court
has increased from 58,000 in April 2019 to 70,000 presently.
2.
SC largely dealt with constitutional cases:
●
In the early decades, the Supreme Court of
India, too, functioned largely as a constitutional court, with some 70-80
judgments being delivered every year by Constitution Benches of five or more
judges.
●
They ruled, as per Article 145(3) of the Constitution, on matters
“involving a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of [the]
Constitution”.
3.
Article 39A:
●
It has been pointed out that Article 39A
says that the state shall ensure that the operation of the legal system
promotes justice, on a basis of equal
opportunity.
4.
Lack of accessibility of justice:
●
The long-pending demand as the SC is far
away situated in Delhi, litigants, particularly of economically weaker sections and oppressed class, are deprived of
getting justice from the last court.
●
It shall ensure that opportunities for
securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other
disabilities.
5.
Cost effective:
●
It is obvious that travelling to New Delhi or engaging expensive Supreme Court counsel
to pursue a case is beyond the means of most litigants.
6.
Breaking the geographical proximity:
●
There was a correlation between
geographical proximity to the Supreme Court and appeal rate.
●
It is not surprising that among the
appeals from High Courts, appeals from the High Court of Punjab and Haryana
comprised a large portion of the total appeals, with no appeals from the High
Courts of the North East.
Arguments
against for Regional Benches:
1.
Dilute the prestige of SC:
●
The Supreme Court has not agreed with the
proposal, which in its opinion will dilute the sacrosanct nature of the Supreme Court
2.
Integrity of India:
●
A full court of the Supreme Court on the
administrative side, headed by Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan, had
turned down a plea seeking regional benches, and had said that dividing the
Supreme Court would ‘break its unitary
character.’
3.
Increases pendency:
●
The constitution of regional benches can
make delivery of justice more efficient, it can also increase the volume of litigation.
●
With reduced costs involved in the
litigation process and easier access, the introduction of regional benches
could worsen the pendency.
4.
Differs in legal principles:
●
With more benches in different regions, there
will be more litigation, and in turn, the risk of a larger body of changing
legal principles.
Thus, the success of
Regional Benches of the Supreme Court would depend on the quality of judges.
Otherwise, it would produce sub-par results and litigants would appeal to the
supreme court. An All-India Judicial
Service can be helpful in boosting the quality of judicial appointments
along with on-time filling of vacancies
and increased use of technology.