While going through the judgments uploaded on the Supreme Court’s official website, an anomaly has caught our attention. In two of the judgments uploaded on the website, the case details mention the bench strength of three judges but the judgment carries the name of only two.
In Ram Sharan Maurya v. State of UP, C.A. No.-003707-003707 / 2020, the bench, as per the case details, consists of Justices UU Lalit, Vineet Saran and S. Ravindra Bhat, however, the judgment, as originally uploaded on the Supreme Court’s official website on 18.11.2020, has been signed by Justices UU Lalit and MM Shantanagoudar.
Here are the screenshots of the Case Details and the names of the judges mentioned in the judgment:
While this is sure to create confusion as to which bench delivered the judgment, the order in the said case clearly mentions that Justice UU Lalit has pronounced the verdict for himself and Justice MM Shantanagoudar.
Read the order here
Similarly, in Jayantilal Verma v. State of Madhya Pradesh (now Chattisgarh), Crl.A. No.-000590-000590 / 2015, as per the case details, consists of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy, however, the judgment, as originally uploaded on the Supreme Court’s official website on 19.11.2020, has been signed by Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy.
Here are the screenshots of the Case Details and the names of the judges mentioned in the judgment:
Just like the previous case, the order in this case also clearly mentions that Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul has pronounced the verdict for himself and Justice Hrishikesh Roy.
Read the order here
While these are just a couple of examples, similar discrepancies continue to appear on the Supreme Court website.
We hope the Supreme Court looks into this and makes sure that the ‘Bench’ column in the ‘Judgments’ section on the Supreme Court website displays the names of the judges who have delivered the verdict.
