Despite a short tenure of 74 days, CJI UU Lalit aims to shake up the status quo in the Supreme Court.

He has started his term in office with some key measures on the Supreme Court’s administrative side.

He also chalked the framework for Constitution Bench hearings in the Supreme Court:

1) Matters to be heard 3 days a week

2) 7.5 hours of hearing every week

3) 1 case to be completed each week

4) By Oct, 4 Matters to be concluded.

Apart from this, CJI UU Lalit also stated that regular hearing matters will be taken up first on non-miscellaneous days and miscellaneous matters post noon.

For the uninitiated, miscellaneous days in Supreme Court are Mondays and Fridays, where fresh petitions are listed for admission hearings. The other days are meant for final hearing of matters, also called as non-miscellaneous days.

The practice till now was to hear the miscellaneous matters first and then the regular hearing matters. This practice often left very little time for regular hearing matters.

This new change introduced by CJI UU Lalit will ensure that final hearing matters get adequate time for hearing.

In another key development, two 5 judge constitutional benches are sitting today.

CJI Lalit’s bench turned down several PIL’s, an indication that the new CJI isn’t too keen on dragging the judiciary into the governance and policy turfs.