Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Wednesday took serious note of allegations that the Supreme Court Registry had misplaced a case file, resulting in an urgent matter remaining unregistered and consequently not being listed before the Court.
The issue was raised by Advocate Shubhi Shivani Jaideep before the Court. The counsel apprised the Bench that the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed on June 8 had still not been registered by the Registry, despite the passage of several days. She added that the representations had already been submitted to the Registrar seeking intervention, but no action had been taken.
Drawing the Court’s attention to the matter, the counsel submitted that the case file appeared to have been misplaced within the Registry, preventing the matter from being listed before the appropriate Bench. Advocate Jaideep requested the Court to direct the Registry to trace the missing file, complete the registration process and ensure that the matter was listed at the earliest.
Taking a serious view of the allegation, the CJI observed that the alleged misplacement of a case file by the Registry was a grave matter warranting closer scrutiny. The Court indicated that if the Registry had indeed misplaced a file in an urgent case, the issue could not be resolved merely by directing the listing of the matter and would require a deeper examination into the circumstances leading to such an occurrence.
The Chief Justice sought complete details regarding the incident and expressed a desire to examine the reasons behind the alleged lapse. The Court indicated that issues relating to administrative inefficiency within the Registry would require an appropriate inquiry if the allegations were found to be correct.
The counsel informed the Bench that despite submitting multiple representations, including one made a day earlier, no response had been received from the Registry regarding the status of the file.
The Chief Justice thereafter directed the Advocate-on-Record appearing in the matter to immediately submit a formal complaint setting out all relevant facts and circumstances relating to the alleged misplacement of the file. The Court stated that the complaint could be personally handed over during the course of the day and sought a detailed account of how the incident had occurred.
The CJI further indicated that he would personally examine the complaint and look into the circumstances that led to the alleged disappearance of the case file from the Registry.
The development comes against the backdrop of earlier concerns expressed by CJI Kant regarding the functioning of the Supreme Court Registry. In May this year, the Chief Justice had publicly expressed dissatisfaction with certain aspects of the Registry’s functioning after noticing that an order directing the issuance of notice to a respondent had not been implemented. On that occasion, the Court had observed that some Registry officials appeared to be exercising authority beyond their administrative role.
Similarly, in February 2026, the Chief Justice had called for a deeper examination of the Registry’s functioning after noticing that substantially similar matters had been listed before different Benches, raising concerns regarding administrative procedures and case management within the institution.
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