Don't mess around with my authority: DY Chandrachud

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Tuesday snapped at a lawyer who was pressing for an earlier date for his petition. "Don't mess around with my authority," the Chief Justice said, when the lawyer suggested that he would raise his request before a different bench.

The advocate had requested the Supreme Court for an early hearing when Justice Chandrachud asserted: "It is on April 17."

The lawyer said: "I can mention before another bench if permitted." The Chief Justice reacted sharply to that suggestion. "Do not play these tricks with me. Do not mention here and then mention elsewhere for an earlier date," Justice Chandrachud said.

"Milord if you excuse me," the lawyer pleaded.

"Yes, you are excused but do not mess around with my authority. If it is listed for 17th, it'll come on 17th. Don't mess around with my authority," the Chief Justice responded.

Every morning, the Chief Justice-led bench hears around 100 cases for their urgent listing.

In February, Chief Justice Chandrachud ordered a lawyer to leave during heated words over the listing of a petition.

Justice Chandrachud, said reports, "shouted at the top of his voice" at senior advocate Vikas Singh, who was urging the Supreme Court to push up a case related to land for Supreme Court lawyers.

The furious Chief Justice snapped: "Keep quiet. Leave this court right now. You cannot cower us down!"

Vikas Singh, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, was pushing for a hearing on a petition by the lawyers' body seeking that land allotted to the Supreme Court be used for a chamber block for lawyers. Lawyers had been struggling to have the case listed for the past six months, he said.

"You can't demand land like this. You tell us the day we are sitting idle for the whole day?" Justice Chandrachud remarked.