August 2022

Dr. Pranav Verma, NALSAR Institute of Law delivered Human Sciences Research Group (HSRG)’s inaugural guest talk in its Weekly Talk series and spoke on Researching the Master of Roster – Computers and Judicial Discretion  on 24 August. 

Dr. Verma started his talk by asserting the Chief Justice of India as the Master of Roster of the Supreme Court, though doubting the powers entailing the title. As he stated, the Chief Justice alone can allot the bench for a particular case hearing, which gives him the powers to manipulate the judgement by forming a bench of like-minded judges. Nevertheless, this was not the case always as earlier the judiciary was controlled by the Union and Chief Justice could only give his consultation.

The talk took a rather quirky turn discussing the First Press Conference by judges of the Supreme Court, even though they are to maintain a low public profile, and arguments made against the Chief Justice in the same. The speaker also discussed the case of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Gogoi, which pointed towards a certain pattern in allotment of bench. Use of computers for bench assignment and its limitations were also discussed.

As Dr. Verma stated, his findings from the data about impact on number of dissents and variety of the bench, show that the Pre-Collegium system could be said to be freer. The talk ended with discussions about uses of research tools and their limitations. An elaborate QnA session follows marking the success of the event.

Dr. Pranav Verma is currently Assistant Professor at the prestigious NALSAR Institute of Law, Hyderabad. His research integrates computational research tools with the knowledge of judicial process to survey factors like seniority of judges, success rates of Union Government, dissenting opinions and more in ‘politically sensitive cases’ to understand how this discretion operates on the ground, and spark conversations on reform.