Practice and Procedure of Supreme Court

This Handbook on Practice and Procedure of the Court and Office Procedure on Judicial side containing orders issued, from time to time, is a ready reckoner in relation to the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, framed under Article 145 of the Constitution.

The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court can be broadly categorized as under:

The main cases shall ordinarily be classified and abbreviated as follows: 1. Arbitration Petition [fc] 2. Civil Appeal [ac] 3. Contempt Petition (Civil) [cc] 4. Contempt Petition (Criminal) [cr] 5. Criminal Appeal [ar] 6. Election Petition [ec] 7. Original Suit [oc] 8. Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) [sc] 9. Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (Criminal) [sr] 10. Special Reference Case [lc] 11. Transferred Case (Civil) [nc] 12. Transferred Case (Criminal) [nr] 13. Transfer Petition (Civil) [tc] 14. Transfer Petition (Criminal) [tr] 15. Tax Reference Case [xc] 16. Writ Petition (Civil) [wc] 17. Writ Petition (Criminal) [wr] 18. Review Petition (Civil) [rc] 19. Review Petition (Criminal) [rr] 20. Curative Petition (Civil) [qc] 21. Curative Petition (Criminal) [qr]

The Registrar shall have the following powers, duties and functions, subject to any further special or general orders of the Chief Justice: 1. to exercise the functions of the Secretary General, in his absence, upon being nominated by the Chief Justice; 2. to order affixation of seal on a certified copy issued by the Court; 3. to keep a list of all cases pending before the Court, and shall, at the commencement of each term, prepare, publish and port on the official website, a list of all cases ready for regular hearing in each class separately, to be called the ‘Terminal List’; 4. to prepare, publish and port on the official website at the end of each week, a list of cases, from out of the Terminal List, to be heard in the following week, as far as possible in the order in which they appear in Terminal List, subject to the directions of the Chief Justice, if any, and out of the Weekly List, shall publish at the end of each day, a Daily List of cases to be heard by the Court on the following day; 5. to prepare, publish and port on the official website, Advance List, Daily List and Supplementary List of the admission hearing cases; 6. to publish such other Lists, subject to general or special orders of the Chief Justice; 7. to require any plaint, petition of appeal, petition or other proceeding presented to the Court to be amended in accordance with the practice and procedure of the Court or to be represented after such requisition as the Registrar is empowered to make in relation thereto has been complied with; 8. to fix the date of hearing of appeals, petitions or other proceedings and issue notices thereof; 9. to settle the index in cases where the record is prepared in the Court; 10. to make an order for change of advocate on-record with the consent of the advocate-on-record; 11. to direct any formal amendment of record; 12. to grant leave to inspect and search the records of the Court and order the grant of copies of documents to parties to proceedings, without interfering or dispensing with any mandatory requirement of the Rules; 13. to allow from time to time on a written request any period or periods not exceeding twenty eight days in aggregate for furnishing information or for doing any other act necessary to bring the plaint, appeal or other proceeding in conformity with the Rules and practice of the Court; 14. to require the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee to assign an advocate in a petition/appeal to a party in-person; 15. to interact with a party, who wants to appear and argue the case in-person, and give opinion by way of office report whether the party in-person will be able to give necessary assistance to the Court for proper disposal of the case or an advocate may be appointed as amicus curiae; 16. to communicate to all the High Courts and the Secretary to the Bar Council of India as also the Secretary of the State Bar Council concerned the name of an advocate, who has been designated as a senior advocate and the date on which he was so designated; 17. to publish list of touts under Order IV Rule 14 of the Rules and port it on the official website as also, by general or special order, exclude such persons from the precincts of the Court whose names are included in the list of touts; 18. to pass orders, for reasons to be recorded in writing, declining to register a document, where the party fails to take any steps for removal of the defect within a period not exceeding twenty eight days in aggregate under Order VIII Rules 6(3) and (4) of the Rules; 19.(i) to decide the question of, and determine, deficient or proper amount of the court fee payable and if the court fee paid on account of bona fide mistake is insufficient, to call upon that party to make good the deficiency within a period not exceeding three months; (ii) to make a declaration and forward a requisition for recovery of deficient court fee to the Central Government, from the person liable to pay, as arrear of land revenue, if the deficiency is not made good within a period of three months; 20. to allow a party to any cause, appeal or matter, on an application, to search or inspect all pleadings and other documents or records in the case, on payment of the prescribed fee and charges; 21. to permit, in his discretion, any record to be sent to any Court, Tribunal or other public Authority on requisition received from such Court, Tribunal or Authority; 22. to reconstruct the record with the approval of the Chief Justice, in case the record is lost or irretrievably misplaced; 23. to settle the decree in terms of Order XII of the Rules; 24. to certify the accounts every month, duly checked and tallied with the monthly statements of receipts and payments received from the Pay and Accounts Officer of the Court; 25. to refuse to receive a petition on the ground that it discloses no reasonable cause or is frivolous or contains scandalous matter under Order XV Rule 5 of the Rules; [The petitioner may, within fifteen days, impugn the order of the Registrar, by way of motion, to the Court.] 26. to report to the Court, in the form of special case, as to the nature of the proceedings based on a question of law and the record that may be necessary for discussion of the case under Order XIX Rule 5 of the Rules; 27.to issue summons to show cause before the Court why the appeal should not be dismissed for non-prosecution, if the appellant is not prosecuting the appeal with due diligence; 28. to pass orders, who is the proper person to be substituted or entered on the record in place of, or in addition to, the party on record and the name of such person shall thereupon be substituted or entered on the record: Provided that no such order of substitution shall be made where a question arises whether or not the person is the legal representative of the deceased party or a question involving setting aside the abatement of the cause is involved. 29. to prepare roster under the directions of the Chief Justice; 30. to accept Bank Guarantee furnished by a party “till the disposal of the case” under Form No.27 appended to the Rules; 31. to order an engagement of an advocate from the panel of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee or assign a panel advocate maintained by the Registry at the cost of the State in a jail petition/appeal; 32. to call, wherever necessary, from the proper officer of the Court appealed from, the relevant documents for determination of the case, upon receipt of the jail petition/appeal; 33. to direct in which of the newspapers publication, referred to in Order V Rule 20 and in the proviso to Rule 9A of Order XLV of the Code, shall be made, unless specifically directed by the Court; 34. to direct issue of notice by Dasti; 35. to give notice to the Attorney General for India on receipt of a Reference under Article 143 of the Constitution to appear before the Court on a day specified in the notice to take the directions of the Court as to the parties who shall be served with notice of such Reference; 36. to transmit to the President the Report of the Court after hearing of the Reference under Article 143 of the Constitution; 37. to give, in a Reference under Order XLIII of the Rules, notice to the person sought to be removed from the concerned office and to the Attorney General for India or the Advocate General of the particular State or to such person as the Statute under which the Reference is made, so provides, to appear before the Court on a day specified in the notice to take directions of the Court in the matter of the inquiry in a Reference under Article 317(1) of the Constitution or any Statute or a Reference made by the Governor under any Statute; 38. to record evidence in a Reference, except under Article 143 of the Constitution, and in original suit under Article 131 of the Constitution, wherever necessary; 39. to place before the Chief Justice the Reference under Section 257 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, for the purpose of assigning the case to a Bench of not less than three Judges; 40. to transmit a copy of the order made in a Reference under Section 257 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal under the seal of the Court; 41. (a) to receive election petition under Order XLVI of the Rules relating to the election of the President and Vice- President under Part-III of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952; (b) to require the petitioner to deposit a sum of Rs. 50,000/-, in cash or by Bank draft either with himself or an officer nominated by him as security for the payment of all costs that may become payable by the petitioner; (c) to require an affidavit as regards service of notice on the Secretary to the Election Commission, the Returning Officer and to the Attorney General for India to be filed with him within five days of the presentation of the petition or within such further time, as the Court may allow; (d) to send a copy of the order made in the election petition to the Central Government for publication in the official gazette; 42. to receive, register and number a plaint presented to him and to sign the list of documents annexed thereto, if, he on examination, finds it to be correct; 43. to consider an application to be excused from compliance with the requirements of any of the Rules under Order LV of the Rules and to take instructions of the Judge in Chambers thereon and communicate the same to the parties but, if, in his opinion, it is desirable that the application should be dealt with in open Court, he may direct the applicant to serve the other party with a notice of motion returnable before the Court; 44. (a) to direct any paper assigned to Part II to be transferred to Part I for being preserved permanently under Order LVI of the Rules; (b) to decide, on a reference being made, the Part under which a record, which do not fall either under Part I or Part II as classified in the Rules, should be included; 45. to decide any dispute regarding subject category and valuation; 46. to sign warrants of arrest; bond and bail bond after arrest under a warrant; and warrant of commitment for contempt in Form Nos. II, III and IV appended to the Rules to Regulate Proceedings for Contempt of the Supreme Court, 1975; 47. to require Additional Registrar/Deputy Registrar to submit report as regards examination of files relating to ‘Not Ready’ cases and directions and guidance given to the subordinate officers/officials to make them ‘Ready’ for being submitted to the Secretary General; 48. to pass orders to ‘Lodge’ a letter petition if, on scrutiny, the same is not found to be covered under the Public Interest Litigation guidelines; 49. to perform any other duties as may be assigned by the Secretary General or the Chief Justice.

1. Every main case shall be accompanied by a ‘computer sheet’ in Form No.31, on demy-foolscap size or standard A4 size paper, duly filled in by the plaintiff, petitioner, appellant or by his advocate on-record or by his duly authorised agent, containing following information-- (i) Class of the Case; (ii) Case number (to be filled by the Registry); (iii) Name of the first party on either side; (iv) Date of filing; (v) Date of Registration (to be filled by the Registry); (vi) Subject Matter; (vii) Provision of law; (viii) Subject Category Code (as per Annexure); (ix) Name and State Bar Council Enrolment Number as also Advocate on-record Registration Number; (x) Particulars of the High Court, lower Court, Authority or Tribunal etc.; a) name, b) designation, c) case, file/order number, d) date of impugned judgment/order. (xi) Whether the party is desirous of getting the matter settled through any of the alternative modes of dispute resolution; (xii) Caveat notice, whether received; (xiii) Name and signature of the advocate on-record filing the main case. 2. Every plaint, petition, application and other document shall be presented by the plaintiff, petitioner, applicant, appellant, defendant or respondent in-person or by his duly authorised agent or by an advocate on-record duly appointed by him for the purpose. 3. No plaint, petition, appeal, application, pleading, affidavit or other document, except original exhibits and certified copies of public documents, shall be received, unless it is fairly and legibly written, type-written or lithographed in double-line spacing, on one side of standard petition paper, demy-foolscap size, or of the size of 29.7 cm x 21 cm, or paper, which is ordinarily used in the High Courts for the purpose. 4. Copies filed for the use of the Court shall be neat, clear, sharp and legible without any inter-lining, encircling or unwanted remark on the documents. They shall be certified to be true copies by the advocate on-record or by the party in-person, as the case may be. 5. No document in language other than English shall be used for the purpose of any proceedings before the Court, unless it is accompanied by: (a) a translation agreed to by both parties; or (b) a translation certified to be true translation by a translator appointed by the Court; or (c) the said document is translated by a translator appointed or approved and notified by the Court. 6. Every memorandum of appeal, petition or application, shall be headed “In the Supreme Court of India”. 7. Immediately below the heading, the jurisdiction, case number and the cause title under which the main case is filed shall be mentioned in that order. 8(i) In a pending main case, no interlocutory application, affidavit in opposition, rejoinder affidavit, affidavit or any other document shall be filed, unless a copy thereof has been previously served on the advocate on-record, or his registered clerk, of the opposite party or parties, as the case may be, or party in-person, who has entered appearance. The advocate on-record or his registered clerk served with such copy shall acknowledge the receipt of the same by endorsement on the filing memo, writing his full name below the signature along with registration number and phone number. (ii)(a) A notice of motion shall be instituted in the suit or case in which the application seeking ad interim ex-parte relief is intended to be made and shall state the time and place of application and the nature of the order sought. (b) It shall be addressed to the party or parties intended to be affected by it, unless represented by an advocate on-record, in which case it shall be addressed to the advocate on-record. (c) It shall be signed by the advocate on-record of the party instituting the motion or by the party in-person. Note Where the Court orders filing of an affidavit, a copy of the affidavit so filed shall be served on the advocate on-record of the opposite party or his registered clerk or the party in-person, as the case may be, a week before the date of hearing or within such time, as may be specified by the Court or Rules or otherwise required in the given situation: Provided that where the advocate on-record for the opposite party or his registered clerk or party in-person refuses to accept a copy, he may record his reasons for such refusal on the filing memo. (iii) No interlocutory application, affidavit in opposition, rejoinder affidavit, affidavit or document, shall be accepted at the Filing Counter without such acknowledgement, receipt or endorsement and no undertaking to effect the service later shall be entertained.