Legal Fraternity Hails End of “VIP Mentioning Era”. Will High Courts Listen to the CJI?
New Delhi/Shimla:
In less than a week of taking charge, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant has initiated a sweeping overhaul of courtroom procedure.
This move is welcomed across the legal fraternity as a decisive strike against the court’s long-criticised VIP-mention culture.
The new rules, now uploaded on the Supreme Court website, are being described as the biggest cultural reset inside the apex court in years.
Automatic Listing: No Lobbying, No Queue-Jumping
Under the new system, any matter involving personal liberty or urgent interim relief will automatically be listed within two working days after defects are corrected.
This ends the old practice where lawyers had to lobby, chase court officers or line up every morning hoping to catch the bench’s attention.
The decision to bar senior advocates from mentioning cases has rattled the elite bar.
For decades, it was common for high-profile lawyers to jump queues or secure instant hearings with a nod to the bench. That door is now shut.
Exceptional Urgency Gets Limited Window
Same-day hearings — once secured through late-night mentioning or selective access — are now allowed only between 10:00 and 10:30 am.
No sudden midnight mentions.
No celebrity bails pushed through on the same day.
No last-minute pleas presented hours before execution.
As one junior lawyer said outside Court:
“The system finally feels like it runs on rules, not relationships.”
Advance Copies Mandatory; Adjournments Curbed
All bail petitions must now serve advance copies to the government counsel, ending the surprise element that often produced one-sided hearings.
Adjournment letters for old matters have been abolished, signalling a move to directly confront India’s pendency crisis.
What This Means for High Courts: The End of ‘NR’ Culture?
While the reforms apply directly to the Supreme Court, their psychological and institutional impact is expected to trickle down into High Courts across the country — especially those battling the notorious ‘Not Reachable’ (NR) culture.
In many High Courts, matters technically listed for the day are not taken up by the bench and simply marked NR.
Lawyers spend weeks attending repeatedly listed but unheard matters, causing immense delays.
Not only this, this malaise has sipped into the lower judiciary including Labour courts in Himachal as well.
The cases are listed by readers in district and labour Courts even when the judges are on tour or leave that has created a culture of "red judicial tapism" mainly in labour courts, where mandate requires the disposal of the matter in a time line.
No accountability is fixed in such matters as to why the cases are listed on day when a judge is on tour.
A bail plea, a land dispute, or a service matter or simple court stay matter, can hang for months, even for years because a bench could not reach it — even when the case was officially in the list.
By enforcing strict timelines, automatic listing, and predictable hearing windows at the apex level, the Supreme Court has effectively set a benchmark that High Courts may now be pressured to emulate.
Judicial activists say the CJI's message is clear: justice cannot be allowed to stagnate in the corridors of scheduling.
If High Courts adopt similar rules, the chronic “listed but not heard” phenomenon, especially in states like UP, Rajasthan, MP, and Himachal Pradesh, could finally be addressed.
Lawyers believe this may push High Courts to streamline roster management, ensure accountability on daily cause lists, and reduce whimsical adjournments — the hidden culprits behind delayed justice.
NJAC Debate Adds Bigger Reform Tone
The impact of the overhaul grew louder when CJI Surya Kant indicated that the court would consider a plea seeking revival of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).
The mere possibility of revisiting the Collegium’s structure has energised judiciary watchers and reform-minded advocates, jurists and political masters.
Mood Inside the Legal World
Young lawyers are jubilant. Public-spirited litigators feel relieved. The old guard is uneasy but cautious in public. Senior counsel, accustomed to fast-track access, now face a level playing field shaped by timelines, not titles.
And on social media, the sentiment is unmistakable — memes, commentary threads and timelines are celebrating what many call the end of the “VIP era of oral mentioning.”
A Cultural Reset
For now, the Supreme Court’s corridors are witnessing a shift: a court that appears to function more like a public institution and less like a closed club.
Whether these reforms and trickle down into High Courts and remain permanent will be tested with time. But the change has already set a precedent.
India’s High Courts may soon have to follow the new rhythm.
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