According to a recent notice dated April 01, 2017 issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, the Apex Court has prepared an ‘Advance Regular Hearing Matters List’ wherein it has listed about 5,000 pending cases for hearing in this summer vacation from May 11, 2017 to July 2, 2017, in a bid to set a leading example to its subordinate courts. This initiative is motivated towards reducing the pendency of ongoing litigation in India and to reduce the burden on the Indian judiciary in order to facilitate speedy justice.
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The Advance Hearing List of the Supreme Court entails two categories (i) Cases which are to be listed on specific dates during the summer vacation as per the direction of the Hon’ble Supreme Court. (ii) Ready Regular Hearing Matters included in the Terminal List dating back to the year 2012. This exhaustive list running through almost 600 pages includes matters pertaining to the complex issues of Whatsapp citizens’ right to privacy issue, validity of triple talaq (Islamic Divorce), right to dignity of Muslim women, and the citizenship issue in the Indian state of Assam.
The Apex Court in its notice has clarified that some of the matters which are shown in the Advance Regular Hearing Matters List are matters that are already appearing in the Weekly/ Daily lists, and those matters which are taken up for final hearing before the commencement of the summer vacation 2017, shall be deleted from the List. The Apex Court has simultaneously also made it clear that any counsel or party whose matter is listed in the Advance Regular Matters List and does not want to take up the matter, may request the same in writing to the Additional Registrar (Listing) of the Court on or before April 28, 2017 after serving a copy to its opposite party, to avoid its listing before the Vacation Bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court. Further, cases of Admissible Categories, where both parties/counsel have given their consent to list their matters during the vacation can also communicate the same to the Registrar of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.
The said notice dated April 1, 2017 as issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India is available at the link http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/FileServer/2017-04-01_1491048822.pdf.