The Supreme Court on November 3 refused to entertain an appeal filed against an order of the Allahabad Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker withdrawing petitions connected to Hindu claims over the Gyanvapi mosque premises from the High Court judge hearing them.
A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud declined to interfere with Chief Justice Diwaker’s order in August while observing that “certain things should remain within the realm of Chief Justice of the High Court.
The special leave petition against the order of Chief Justice Diwaker was filed by the mosque’s management, Anjuman Intazamia Masjid.
Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, for the mosque management, said the withdrawal of the case from the Single Judge Bench of Justice Prakash Padia was “actually an abuse of process”.
Mr. Ahmadi said though it was true that the mosque management was duty-bound to argue the case before any Bench of the High Court, Justice Padia had been extensively hearing the case since 2021. The senior lawyer said the case had in fact been reserved for judgment.
The apex court was however not impressed and drew Mr. Ahmadi ‘s attention to certain paragraphs in Chief Justice Diwakar’s order giving reasons for his decision to withdraw the case from the Single Judge Bench.
“We should not interfere with the power of the Chief Justice,” the CJI addressed Mr. Ahmadi.
In his order, Chief Justice Diwaker said the case had been withdrawn from the Single Judge Bench “in the interest of judicial propriety and judicial discipline as well as the transparency in the listing of cases”.
“The non-observance of procedure in listing of the cases, passing of successive orders for reserving the judgment and again listing the cases before the learned Judge for hearing, though he no longer had jurisdiction in the matter as per the roster, under the directions received from the chamber of learned Judge, without allowing the parent section in the office to have access to the records of these cases are instances of non-observance of procedure settled for listing and hearing of cases,” the withdrawal order said.
