The Supreme Court of India on Monday said it is considering formally closing the long-running MC Mehta cases, which have continued to be shown as pending since 1984–85 due to the repeated filing of interlocutory applications under the same caption.
The original MC Mehta cases dealt with issues such as environmental pollution, land disputes, and pollution in the Taj Trapezium Zone. Although these matters were decided by the Supreme Court of India decades ago, fresh issues on similar subjects continued to be filed as interlocutory applications under the same 1985 MC Mehta case.
As a result, these newer matters being listed under the MC Mehta caption created the misleading impression that the original 1985 cases were still pending.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, said this practice should be discontinued.
The Bench directed that the 1984 matter, the 1985 matter, and the Taj Trapezium case be listed separately on three different dates, and that all interlocutory applications be heard on the respective dates fixed for each of these matters.
“What is happening in this court? IA after IA is being filed in this court. MC Mehta alone has 85 pending ones. Then you will ask the Parliament how many cases are pending before us. I will not go through such embarrassment!” the Chief Justice said.
The Chief Justice of India Surya Kant also directed court officers to examine ways to re-caption such cases, so that matters already disposed of are not shown as pending on the active docket merely because miscellaneous applications continue to be filed.
The Supreme Court of India directed the Attorney General for India, the Solicitor General of India, and the Additional Solicitor General of India to suggest how these matters should be re-captioned to ensure that the main cases are not kept alive.
The Court also said the cases should be identified to determine which of them could be transferred to the High Courts.
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