File photo: Supreme Court of India
NEW DELHI: Moving towards promptly answering litigants’ midnight knocks on the doors of constitutional courts for protection of life and liberty, Supreme Court Tuesday agreed to attempt devising a standard operating procedure (SOP) to expeditiously hear such petitions even after the courts’ official working time.A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana entertained a PIL by advocate Maheravish Rein, who complained that when litigants face emerging situations threatening their life and liberty, there is no process available for them to approach the constitutional courts, which becomes important when the police is hand-in-glove with the oppressors.The petitioner cited a case relating to an inter-faith marriage where police were approached by the couple for security. Instead of providing security, police took the girl away and handed her to her parents at a place away from the police station, she said.Rein said that she knocked on the doors of the Delhi HC chief justice and CJI in Nov last year but got no response, adding that the Supreme Cuurt registrar asked her to wait till morning.Justice Bagchi said there is a system in place in Supreme Court and each HC to deal with urgent petitions involving life and liberty issues. “It is not that there is no system. What was wrong was the response given at the access point for filing the petition.”CJI Kant has periodically stated that courts should aim to function 24×7 like hospitals to promptly address the pain and sufferings of the common man. He added that the court has no difficulty in listing urgent matters for hearing, but in many cases, these are required to be scrutinised by the registry as most such petitions are drafted badly and convey a very vague picture.Solicitor general Tushar Mehta suggested that it should be restricted to cases where infringement of life and liberty is apprehended and not to any other category as any leeway given by the court would flood it with commercial litigations citing urgency.The bench agreed with the SG and said that only petitions relating to life and liberty would be considered for urgent listing. The SG also suggested that the SOP can be framed on the administrative side by Supreme Court.However, the CJI decided to seek suggestions from HCs and the registry of Supreme Court, saying if the SOP is to be applied to HCs for urgent hearing of petitions beyond court hours, it should also apply to the Supreme Court.
