Won't be hearing cases that need verdicts to be reserved: CJI Khanna

NEW DELHI: Justice Sanjiv Khanna , the 51st and present Chief Justice of India , on Tuesday appeared to be preparing for his retirement on May 13 as he declared that he would not be taking up final hearing of matters which require reserving verdicts and penning detailed judgments at home.

When the matter related to the legal tussle between Pinarayi Vijayan-led left front govt in Kerala and state's governor over keeping pending Bills approved by the assembly came up for hearing, CJI Khanna told senior advocate K K Venugopal that he would not hear the case as he does not want to reserve judgments any more.

"I don't want to reserve judgments any more. That is why I am not reserving verdicts any more and dictating orders and judgments in the court itself," he said, adding that the legal contest between Kerala govt and the governor over approval to Bills passed by the assembly would be assigned to some other bench.

Venugopal said, "Today, a bench headed by Justice J B Pardiwala has delivered a thumping judgment deprecating the practice of governors to sit over Bills passed by assembly and not giving assent to it. This case too can be assigned to the bench headed by Justice Pardiwala." For 23 months, the governor has kept pending seven bills, he said.

But the CJI was no-committal to the request and said let the judgment be examined by both sides and that he would pass an appropriate administrative order to assign the case to a bench.

In the afternoon, CJI Khanna was leading a special bench, also comprising Justices A S Oka and Bela M Trivedi, to hear matters relating to coal scam cases of UPA-era. The CJI said, "All three of us have very little time in hand and this case would be assigned to another bench." However, it acceded to Delhi HC's request with agreements of amici curiae - senior advocates R S Cheema and Maninder Singh - to relieve one of the special judges of the trial for administrative reasons.