Top five judges to hear PIL matters

New Delhi: With the Supreme Court all set to work in its full strength of 31 judges from July 1 after summer vacation, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has notified a new roster of work which said top five judges of the apex court will be hearing Public Interest Litigation (PIL) matters.

Earlier, fresh PIL matters were notified to be heard only by the CJI and the second senior-most judge after the CJI.

According to the fresh roster uploaded on the apex court website, the CJI will deal with the PIL matters and it would be his discretion to assign PIL cases to other top four judges - S A Bobde, N V Ramana, Arun Mishra and R F Nariman.

The bench headed by the Chief Justice will also hear petitions on letters received, matters related to social justice, elections, company law, monopoly and restricted trade practices, TRAI, SEBI, Insurance and Reserve Bank of India.

The CJI has also kept with himself matters concerning arbitration, habeas corpus, criminal cases, contempt of court and ordinary civil matters.

His bench will also deal with the issues relating to the appointment of constitutional functionaries.

Besides matters pertaining to judicial officers and commissions of enquiry, would also be allocated before the bench headed by the CJI.

A bench led by Justice Bobde will hear matters related to direct and indirect taxes, mercantile law, commercial transactions including banking, election, appeals against orders of statutory bodies, arbitration appeals, the appointment of law officers, matters pertaining to employees of Supreme Court, high court, district courts and tribunals.

Justice Ramana has been assigned matters related to compensation, arbitration appeals, criminal matters, ordinary civil matters, mercantile laws, commercial transactions including banking, judicial officers matters and matters related to armed forces and paramilitary forces, admiralty and maritime laws.

Besides PIL and letter petitions, Justice Arun Mishra led bench has been assigned matters of land acquisition and requisition and indirect taxes.

Justice Nariman, the fifth in seniority in the apex court, has been assigned PIL and letter petitions besides direct taxes, rent act, compensation, family law etc.