Away in China for a week, CJI to resume today, set for a hectic spell

NEW DELHI: In a first in the history of Supreme Court, an incumbent CJI did not attend to judicial work for a week to participate in a conference abroad and will resume work on Monday.

CJI Sanjiv Khanna left for China on Monday last week to attend the conference of Chief Justices of Supreme Courts of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries being held in Hangzhou. Several CJIs told TOI that they would attend the SCO conference only when the court was on vacation. If such conferences clashed with the working of SC, then a senior judge was assigned to attend it, they said. Even when India hosted the SCO CJs conference in 2023, the then CJI did not not miss judicial work in the courtroom even for a day.

SC had a five-day holiday from April 10 to 14, during which the CJI had vacationed in Port Blair. He held court from April 15 to 17. The court was closed on April 18 because of Good Friday and then the weekend followed. When the court reopened on April 21, the CJI had left for China for the SCO conference. He will resume work on Monday and will have a hectic spell before May 13 when he is due to retire.

Before retirement, he has two important tasks. The first is to decide the prayer for stay of certain provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act sought by more than 150 Muslim petitioners but opposed by the Centre. The second is to decide on the course of action - whether to direct lodging of FIR or close the case - against Justice Yashwant Varma from whose official residence in Delhi a huge pile of cash was found on the night of March 14.

On March 22, the CJI had appointed a three-member judicial panel to inquire into the incident.