Two days after Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, pointing to the high pendency of cases, said if the Supreme Court “starts hearing bail applications… all frivolous PILs” it will add “a lot of extra burden on the Court”, a bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud remarked Friday “it is in the seemingly small and routine matters involving grievances of citizens that issues of the moment, both in jurisprudential and constitutional terms, emerge”.
The bench, also comprising Justice P S Narasimha, said that “right to personal liberty is a precious and inalienable right recognised by the Constitution” and lack of intervention by the Court can even lead to “serious miscarriage of justice”.
The CJI also announced that the Supreme Court will not have any vacation bench during the winter recess starting December 19. “There will be no benches available from tomorrow till January 2, 2023,” he said.
A day earlier, Rijiju had told Rajya Sabha “there is a feeling among people of India that the long vacation which the courts obtain is not very convenient for justice-seekers” and it is his “obligation and duty to convey the message or sense of this House to the judiciary”.
As per practice, the Supreme Court usually has vacation benches only during the long summer vacation between March and July but has no such bench during the winter recess.
The CJI’s remark on the “right to personal liberty” being “a precious and inalienable right” came in an order directing that the sentence imposed on a man, convicted under the Electricity Act, will run concurrently and not consecutively.