New Delhi: The revived ST status case of Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and others will now be heard by the regular bench instead of the Social Justice bench since the same has been abolished by the Chief Justice, the apex court ruled on Friday.
The verdict on the ST status case came up for hearing by the Supreme Court based on the plea of Tennydard Marak who is pursuing the case. The apex court ordered that the matter will come up for hearing before a Social Justice Bench after a fresh petition filed by Marak before the Court was taken up earlier.
It was on September 18 last year that the Division Bench of the Supreme Court had disposed of the matter citing that there was no merit in the case which, however, was challenged by Marak. Following this, Marak filed a recall petition (interlocutory application) against the September 18 judgment and the matter was heard by the Registrar of Supreme Court, who in an order on November 2 rejected the petition filed by Marak.
Subsequently on November 16, Marak had filed a fresh appeal against the November 2 order of Registrar of Supreme Court. Marak had stated that his writ petition was dismissed on September 18 by the Supreme Court without hearing the petitioner in violation of the principles of natural justice after about 1 year and 4 months. The apex court had cited that it was not inclined to continue with these petitions under Article 32 of the Constitution.
However, Marak said that the power of judicial review conferred upon the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution is part of the inviolable basic structure of the Constitution. According to Marak,
Article 32 is “a great and salutary safeguard for preservation of Fundamental Rights of the citizens”.
The Registrar also wanted the petitioner to approach the High Court of Meghalaya, which as per the petitioner is not logical since he had already sought the intervention of the High Court in the past.
Marak also pointed out that the order XV Rule 5 of the Supreme Court Rules 2013 does not vest on the
Registrar the power and jurisdiction to reject the application for directions seeking recall of the September 18 order and restoration of the writ petition.
“The power and jurisdiction to recall the order and restoration of the matter lies solely with the Supreme Court. The Registrar has exceeded its jurisdiction by passing the order. This is an error apparent on the face of the record and the Registrar failed to appreciate that the pleadings in the matter are complete,” Marak had maintained.
While the chief minister’s case was pleaded by former Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal, Marak was represented by Rajiv Dhawan.
The social justice bench comprising justices Madan B Lokur and U.U. Lalit set up by the previous Chief Justice of India Justice H.L. Dattu in 2014. It has now officially ceased by the present Chief Justice and the cases which were part-heard before that bench have been distributed to other benches.
During Justice Dattu’s tenure, the Supreme Court formally set up the bench and through a release, justified the setting up of the bench on the ground that several cases relating to the domain of social justice were pending for years, and that they should be given a specialized approach for their early disposal, so that the masses would realize the fruits of the rights provided to them by the constitutional text.
The bench was set up with a view to monitor the social justice matters on a regular basis, by sitting on every working Friday.
