Justice Oka calls for automated roster to curb manual case listing in Supreme Court

Former Supreme Court judge Justice Abhay S Oka on Tuesday, 27 October 2026 said the top court was excessively centred around the Chief Justice and needed a proper roster system to prevent manual intervention in the listing of cases. Speaking at an event in New Delhi organised by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms, Justice Oka said the Supreme Court should adopt a roster similar to high courts, ruling out manual intervention even by the Chief Justice of India.

Justice Oka said the current system assigns categories of cases to multiple benches, leaving litigants uncertain about which bench will hear their matters. He backed the collegium system, saying it should not be replaced unless a better alternative is found, but added that publishing resolutions on the website was not enough for transparency. He also called for automatic listing of fresh cases, a rational policy to decide priority cases, and stronger judicial accountability at all levels without compromising judicial independence.

The event was attended by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, advocate Prashant Bhushan, former Delhi High Court judge Justice Rekha Sharma, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, activist Yogendra Yadav and AISA president Neha Bora. Sibal said the country was facing an institutional crisis and public confidence in the judiciary was eroding, adding that administrative decisions like allocation of politically sensitive cases lacked accountability.