The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed its dismay over the registry not listing matters despite orders from its vacation benches and said that cases will be listed as per the set procedure. A vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala said that it has on Monday directed a matter to be listed for Tuesday but the registry has said that it will not be listed.
“We didn't want to say it in open court but it's a fact. Yesterday, we made an exception. We had directed a matter to be listed for today but the registry said that it will not list the case. We don't want to say anything more”, the bench told senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was seeking urgent listing of a plea filed by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (Adani) against the Bombay High Court order.
The bench said that there is a set procedure in place for the listing of matters during vacations and asked Singhvi to approach the mentioning registrar for urgent listing and if the request is denied then it could look into it. Singhvi said that the court's discretion cannot be circumscribed by the registry and it can make an exception for urgent listing of the matter.
Significantly, the same vacation bench on Monday had ordered the listing of the Centre's petition for hearing on Tuesday against the Tripura High Court order passed on a PIL challenging the grant of security cover to industrialist Mukesh Ambani and his family members in Mumbai. Despite the order of the bench passed after the matter was mentioned by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the matter was not listed for Tuesday.
Singhvi urged the bench to list the matter saying the Bombay High Court order was given to them on Monday in which it had dismissed a plea filed by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (Adani) challenging the disqualification of its bid in a tender issued by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) for up-gradation of a container terminal in Navi Mumbai. The Bombay High Court has on Monday directed Adani to pay a cost of Rs five lakh for bringing to court an "unmeritorious case." Of this, Adani already deposited Rs 4,24,800 with JNPA at the time of submitting its bid.
The high court has asked the JNPA to retain the amount and directed Adani to deposit the remaining amount.