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Only CJI is ‘Master of Rolls’, says Supreme Court

In an unprecedented order, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Friday quashed an order by the Justice J Chelameswar-led bench for…

Only CJI is ‘Master of Rolls’, says Supreme Court

Chief Justice of India (CJI), Dipak Misra File Photo: IANS

In an unprecedented order, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Friday quashed an order by the Justice J Chelameswar-led bench for the setting up of a five-judge Constitution Bench to hear an alleged bribery case involving a retired Orissa High Court judge, saying that the CJI is the “Master of Rolls” who can assign cases and direct composition of benches.

Issuing the order, a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra cited a 1998 order of the apex court that held that the Chief Justice of a High Court will be the Master of Rolls and assign cases to different benches. The Justice Misra-headed bench said any order contrary to the 1998 judgement would be inactive by law and shall not be binding.

Extending the same principle, the bench said Chief Justice of India is the “Master of Rolls” in the top court and any order passed by any bench assigning any matter to itself or directing the composition of benches won’t be binding.

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The order comes a day after the two-judge bench led by Justice Chelameswar, the senior-most judge after the Chief Justice of India, ordered the setting up of a five-judge bench to hear on Monday a corruption case involving former Orissa High Court judge, I M Quddusi.

Quddusi, an Orissa High Court judge between 2004 and 2010, is alleged to have helped a private medical college to admit students to MBBS courses despite the Supreme Court barring the institutes from doing so.

The judge was arrested in September and is lodged in Tihar Jail here after CBI accused him of guiding the private medical college and assuring its management of favourable settlement of their cases in the Supreme Court.

A petition filed by Supreme Court advocate Kamini Jaiswal on Thursday sought an investigation into the case by a court-monitored Special Investigation Team. The petition was taken up for hearing by the bench headed by Justice Chelameswar.

Making it clear that they were not underestimating the seriousness of the matter, the court in its order said that let the appropriate order be passed to tag the petition by the NGO Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms with the one by advocate Kamini Jaiswal, which was referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench on Thursday by the bench of Justice Chelameswar and Justice S Abdul Nazeer.

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