After Rift, Chief Justice Dipak Misra Makes Public Supreme Court Judges' Roster

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has made public the assignment of cases in the Supreme Court and has also decided that he will take up all public interest petitions, weeks after four judges called an extraordinary press conference to accuse the top judge of allocating "sensitive cases" to junior judges.

The Supreme Court roster for judges has been made public for the first time in the shadow of a rift after the Chief Justice was publicly criticized by four judges who are senior most after him - Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph.

The new roster system will begin from Monday and will apply to new cases.

The Chief Justice will hear all PILs or Public Interest Litigation and cases related to elections, criminal cases, social justice cases and the appointment of constitutional functionaries. 

Justice J Chelameswar, the number two judge of the Supreme Court, who called the media to his home for the January 12 press conference targeting the Chief Justice, will hear cases related to labour, indirect taxes, criminal cases and consumer protection.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who is tipped to be the next Chief Justice, will hear cases related to labour, indirect taxes, crime, personal law and religion.

Justice Madan Lokur has been assigned cases about ecology, consumer protection, mines and minerals, personal Law, armed forces and paramilitary forces. 

Against the name of Justice Kurien Joesph, the roster lists cases of labour, crime and family law matters.

The four judges went public against the Chief Justice the day a petition related to the 2015 death of Judge BH Loya - who was deciding on a case in which BJP president Amit Shah was an accused when he died of a heart attack - was assigned to the number 20 judge in Supreme Court, Justice Arun Mishra.

The Loya case is being heard by the Chief Justice after Justice Arun Mishra referred it to a suitable bench.