NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday flagged the issue of corporate matters being frequently mentioned before it for urgent listing by the lawyers, saying that the cases about the weaker sections and criminal matters would go "backstage".
The observation was made by a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana when senior advocate C U Singh mentioned a corporate matter for the priority hearing.
"We have to wait. We are streamlining the (mentioning) system and here corporations want their matters to be listed first," the CJI observed.
The bench, also comprising justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli then referred to criminal appeals, family disputes, and the cases of poor people pending adjudication and said that they would take backstage.
"There are pending criminal appeals, bail matters, and other cases of people of weaker sections too. They are lagging behind," the bench said.
Earlier, the CJI had said that the new system of mentioning cases for urgent hearings before apex court officials instead of its benches directly has been put in place to ensure that senior lawyers are not given "special priority" over their junior colleagues.
"We do not want to give any special priority to the senior lawyers and deprive the junior lawyers of their opportunities. So this system was made, where all can make the mention before the mentioning Registrar", the bench had said.
"First you go to the mentioning Registrar, and if it is disallowed, your right to mention before the bench is automatic," the bench had told lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
CJI Ramana has discontinued the practice of allowing direct mentioning of cases for urgent listing before the benches and has instead asked the lawyers to mention their cases before the designated official.