The Supreme Court on Monday left it to the discretion of the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court as master of roster to allocate an appropriate Bench to hear a suo motu revision proceedings against Tamil Nadu Revenue Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran in a corruption case.
An apex court Bench headed by Justice Hrishikesh Roy, however, orally expressed reservations about Justice Anand Venkatesh, acting as a Single Judge Bench of the Madras High Court, taking suo motu cognisance to revive the case. Justice Roy said the judge ought to have ideally placed the matter before the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court for passing an order numbering the suo motu case and assigning it to a Bench. “We deem it appropriate to say that the suo motu matter should be considered by the Chief Justice. He may either proceed to take up the matter himself or may assign it to a judge of the High Court, as he may consider appropriate,” the apex court recorded in its order.
The Bench noted that all proceedings should emanate from the office of the Chief Justice in his administrative capacity of the master of the roster of the particular High Court. “The learned judge could have ideally directed the Registry to obtain orders of the Chief Justice of the High Court to allot suo motu revision number. Instead, a direction was issued to the Registry to allot suo motu revision number for the case being handled by the Judge,” the apex court noted.
