Chief Justice can reassign reserved cases to safeguard judicial integrity: HC

Emphasising the need to protect the judiciary’s reputation and maintain public trust, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today affirmed that the Chief Justice might withdraw any matter—including a case already heard and reserved—from one Bench and place it before another.

The court ruled that there was no statutory or judicial restriction on such roster adjustments. The assertion came as Chief Justice Sheel Nagu rejected a challenge to the withdrawal and reassignment of a case initially heard and reserved by another Bench.

The case has its genesis in a petition filed by Roop Bansal seeking the quashing of an FIR registered on April 17 at the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Panchkula, under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120-B, IPC.

The matter stood heard and reserved by the Single Bench before it was transferred to a newly constituted Bench presided over by the Chief Justice. The receipt of complaint––oral as well as written––was cited as the reason, which impelled him to requisition the case record and constitute another Single Bench comprising the Chief Justice “to give quietus to the complaint, draw curtains to the controversy and save the institution and the concerned Judge from any further embarrassment by deciding the case as expeditiously as possible".

Raising objections, the petitioner’s counsel contended that “the instant Single Bench cannot hear a case which was heard, reserved and listed for pronouncement of final order by another Single Bench.” They contended that the roster power should not extend to reassign a matter for rehearing once a Bench had heard and reserved the matter.

After hearing the arguments, the Bench asserted the powers of the Chief Justice in his capacity as master of the roster were wide, pervading and plenary. “These powers are circumscribed by only one consideration––to protect the interest of the institution from being tarnished and to uphold the public trust reposed in judiciary by litigants. If these considerations are kept in mind, then the power of the Chief Justice of allocating a particular case to any particular Bench or withdrawing a particular case from any particular Bench and allocating the same to any other Judge are untrammelled and immune from judicial scrutiny”.

Haryana Tribune