New Delhi: The latest changes in Delhi High Court’s case roster, effective from 1 July 2026, will see major shifts in which judges hear what kind of cases.
As the HC resumes its usual load of work on the first day of July with the partial working days/summer vacations coming to an end, these changes by the master of roster, Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya, though routine, hold significance.
Among the major changes made, the roster for hearing criminal cases relating to sitting/former MPs and MLAs, held till now by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, has been transferred to Justices Manoj Jain and Madhu Jain separately.
Justice Sharma’s tenure while she held the criminal roster has been extremely stormy because of the hearings related to the Delhi liquor policy scam case, specifically CBI’s challenge to Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s discharge. The controversy involved heated recusal pleas, allegations of bias, and eventual contempt of court proceedings. She had also rejected the bail pleas of Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and others in the scam case.
The former Delhi chief minister and other AAP members accused in the case had sought Justice Sharma’s recusal citing apprehension of bias and her past attendance at an RSS event, the ideological parent of the BJP. In a well highlighted hearing, Kejriwal, arguing the case himself, also demanded Justice Sharma’s recusal on the grounds that her children were advocates empanelled by the central government.
In April this year, Justice Sharma rejected Kejriwal’s plea for her own recusal, stating on record that unfounded allegations regarding her family’s professional standing and judicial integrity were insufficient to prove bias.
However, a month later, she framed contempt charges against Kejriwal and other AAP leaders, citing social media posts, described as a “calculated campaign of vilification in the digital space”. In the same May order, Justice Sharma ultimately decided to transfer the case to another bench, stating that it was to ensure a smooth trial amid the ongoing contempt cases.
Now, Justice Sharma will only be hearing civil writ petitions including those involving statutory authorities, DTC, Urban Arts Commission, Airport Authority of India, etc. from the year 2021 onwards. Civil writ petitions of RTI, mines and sexual harassment at the workplace will also be heard by her bench.
Other important roster changes include that of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna who has been shifted from the criminal and bail roster to regular first appeals of 2020 to 2025 and 2026, regular second appeals and civil writ petitions of service upto the year 2015.
Justice Krishna, this month, quashed the FIR and the Enforcement Directorate’s money laundering (ECIR) case against news portal NewsClick and its founder, Prabir Purkayastha. She termed the proceedings a “gross abuse of the process of law”.
Recently on the vacation bench, she criticised the central government in the case relating to the eviction of the Indian Polo Associated from the 15.2 acre Jaipur Polo Ground. She orally observed that reclaiming the capital’s last green spaces will leave Delhi gasping and suffocate its residents.
(Edited by Niyati Kothiyal)
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As such, people have lost faith in most of the institutions. Most are weakened including the SC. Hope we don’t have any RSS sanghis don’t sit in judgement in politically sensitive cases