SC judge Arun Mishra to hear medical admission matters

New Delhi: A new roster system for allocation of cases in the Supreme Court has assigned to Justice Arun Mishra matters related to admission and transfer of candidates in engineering and medical colleges which recently saw a sitting and a retired high court judge caught on the wrong foot.

Justice Mishra, who heads a bench, has been divested of the PIL matters.

He had recently recused himself from hearing the PILs related to the death of special CBI judge BH Loya, who was dealing with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

Four senior most top court judges -- J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- in their controversial January 12 press conference had questioned, among other issues, the allocation of PILs on Loya to him.

The notification on the allocation of matters issued under the order of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra showed that according to the new roster, Justice Mishra will hear matters related to all admissions or transfers to engineering and medical colleges, allocation of 15% all-India quota in admissions/transfers to medical colleges and establishment and recognition of educational institutions.

The alleged anomaly committed by Justice Shukla with regard to a private medical college, which was restrained by the apex court in enrolling students in a 2017-18 academic year, led to a CBI probe in the medical education scam matter. Former Orissa High Court judge IM Quddusi was arrested.

Besides these matters, Justice Mishra will also hear labour, land acquisition, service, criminal, family law and ordinary civil cases.

On the other hand, Justice SA Bobde, as per the new roster, will hear matters on admissions to the educational institution other than the medical and engineering colleges.

The roster showed that a bench headed by Justice Bobde will also hear academic, compensation, criminal, family law, land law and agriculture tenancy, admiralty and maritime law matters.