‘NO ONE IS HERE’: SUPREME COURT VACATION BENCH RISES IN 30 MINUTES AFTER NO LAWYER APPEARS IN REGULAR HEARING MATTERS

After adjudicating the regular matters listed before the Supreme Court as there was no appearance by lawyers in any of the cases, the vacation bench of the Supreme Court had to rise within 30 minutes on Monday. It was observed that the bench had already heard the fresh matters in the first 30 minutes (Item numbers 1-10) and due to non-appearance of lawyers the cases which couldn’t be taken up were the regular hearing matters (item numbers 101-105) all dating back to 2014-2015. It was noticed that the bench directed that the same list for regular matters be repeated tomorrow as in these matters, no counsel was present physically or through any virtual mode. The bench observed and seeing that no lawyers were physically present in the court for the regular hearing matters. The bench comprising of Justice Oka asked the Court Staff to “check on the VC. In Any Lawyer connected over there?”. Adding to this Justice Sundresh remarked. “No One is here”. The bench observed and stated to “Repeat the same list of matters tomorrow, No lawyer is present there today”. It was noticed that in May Supreme Court notified the Regular Ready hearing matters will be taken up for hearing by the Vacation Benches, I both the parties agree, the matter will be taken up from Monday to Friday. A clarification was made stating that as per the guidelines and norms approved by the Chief Justice of India, only the matters from the notified subject categories will be taken up. The bench further noticed that any Counsel and Partyin-Person who desire that their case which is pending and ready for Regular hearing be taken up during the Summer Vacation, 2022 will have to ensure that the case comes under any of the Subject Categories notified and obtain the consent of all the parties or Advocates appearing in the case