Supreme Court Announces New Roster, To Come Into Effect From January 4

• The Supreme Court recently notified about the new roster leading allocation of cases to different Benches of the apex court.

• There are no changes when compared to the previous roster notified in October 2020.

• The same will come into effect upon the reopening of the court after the winter break on 4th January 2021.

• The subject wise roster system was introduced by former CJI Dipak Mishra in February 2018, in the backdrop of 'master of roster' controversy which erupted after the press conference by four senior judges, who alleged that the CJI was selectively assigning cases to benches of preferences, ignoring seniority of judges.

• The second senior most judge, Justice NV Ramana is scheduled to hear 12 categories of matters reaching from arbitration matters and civil cases to admiralty and maritime matters.

• Thirteen subject categories have been assigned to Justice R Nariman including company law, banking, SEBI and TRAI cases. Whereas, PIL petitions and social justice matters to be heard by Benches headed by CJI, RV Nariman, UU Lalit, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud, Justices NV Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and L Nageswara Rao.

• Election matters, Social Justice matters and Habeas Corpus remains with the bench headed by the CJI only. Correspondingly, Contempt of Court matters are assigned to the benches headed by the Chief Justice of India and Justice UU Lalit.

• Religious and Charitable Endowment Matters are allotted to the benches headed by Justices N V Ramana, Justice Ashok Bhushan, UU Lalit and D Y Chandrachud.

• Arbitration Matters to benches of CJI, Justice Ramana, Indira Banerjee, R F Nariman and Indu Malhotra.