Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. File | Photo credit: PTI
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Thursday (February 26, 2026) promised reform in the work of the Supreme Court registry after finding that similar cases are being brought up for hearing before different benches.
In a brief note, the Chief Justice said that there are officials who consider Supreme Court judges as transient while themselves as permanent residents of the court.
“There are staff or officials who think they have been here for 20 or 30 years. They reason that a judge could only be on the Supreme Court for eight years at the most. So they think that we (judges) come and go and they are permanent people and therefore things have to happen as they want. That worries me. If I am not able to do this reform before I get out of office, then it will be Kant.”
The case involved a court petition by Irfan Solanki, who said the definition of “organized crime” in the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters Act contradicted the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the central law that replaced the Indian Penal Code. Counsel for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Shoeb Alam, said the case was listed before the Supreme Court when the same petitions on the same issue of objection were pending before another bench of the apex court.
Irritated at one point, Mr. Alam asked the Chief Justice to allow him to withdraw the petition. However, the CJI said it should not be withdrawn and the petition would be an example of further reforms in the registry.
“The matter requires further investigation. It is about the functioning of the docket of this court. The biggest challenge before me is the docket of this court, so I have to dig deeper into how a case, after one chamber has expressed its final opinion, goes to another chamber…” said Chief Justice Kant.
Published – 26 Feb 2026 22:02 IST
