PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL)

About: 

• Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi has notified a new roster of work which said top five judges of the Supreme Court will be hearing Public Interest Litigation (PIL) matters.
  
  
• Earlier, fresh PIL matters were notified to be heard only by the CJI and the second senior-most judge after the CJI.
  
  
• According to the fresh roster uploaded on the apex court website, the CJI will deal with the PIL matters and it would be his discretion to assign PIL cases to other top four judges — S.A. Bobde, N.V. Ramana, Arun Mishra and R.F. Nariman.
  
  

Comment:

• According to experts, the change is significant since it undoes a move by former chief justice Dipak Misra, whose tenure was marked by a controversy related to assignment of cases.
  
  
• After an unprecedented press conference by the next four top judges, Misra had in 2018 set in place the procedure of the Chief Justice hearing all PILs.