Supreme Court agrees to examine Shanti Bhushan's plea against CJI's power as master of roster, seeks AG and ASG's assistance

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday decided to examine a PIL filed by former law minister Shanti Bhushan challenging the existing roster practice of allocation of cases by the Chief Justice of India (CJI). A bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan sought the assistance of Attorney General KK Venugopal and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in dealing with the PIL stating that the CJI cannot exercise arbitrary power in allocation of cases. However, the bench took objection when Bhushan’s counsel made an attempt to bring to its notice the unprecedented January 12 press conference held by four of the court’s most senior judges — Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph — who had accused Chief Justice Dipak Misra of arbitrarily allocating cases. “We are not going to go into it. We are not concerned with it for many reasons and obvious reasons. Don’t say all this,” the bench said. The bench also referred to its recent verdicts, saying it has already held that the CJI is the ‘master of roster’.