Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud on November 3 urged lawyers not to seek frequent adjournments and turn the Supreme Court to a 'tareek pe tareek' (date after date) court.
The CJI raised concerns about the practice of lawyers circulating advance letters seeking adjournments, especially on miscellaneous days when fresh cases are scheduled for hearing. He said, "Lawyers have circulated 3,688 letters for adjournment in just September and October." The top judge also noted that while lawyers seek for urgent listing of cases, they circulate a letter for adjournment nullifying the urgency.
The CJI said : "Since September 2023, 2,361 matters have been mentioned for early hearing. 59 matters are being mentioned on an average every day. On the one hand matters are listed on expedited basis, on the other hand, they are mentioned, then they get listed and then they are adjourned."
Asking lawyers to avoid the practice of circulating these adjournment letters, he noted that though the SC does not ask why adjournments are being sought, he advised the lawyers not to misuse this option.
The CJI said that the court has been working on reducing the time taken between filing and hearing of a case . He noted that 154 adjournment slips have been circulated for cases listed on November 3 alone.
Pendency in Supreme Court:
As per the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) SC has a pendency of 79,540 cases. Of the 79,540 nearly 25,000 cases are less than one year old.
Over 45,000 cases have been instituted in the Supreme Court in 2023 of which 4,918 were instituted in September 2023. Over 4300 cases were disposed in September.
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