"Out-Of-Turn" Hearings Can Cause Injustice To Other Litigants, Priority Should Be Given Only In Exceptional Cases With Genuine Reasons: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court on Monday held that litigants should be allowed to seek early disposal of their cases only in exceptional cases where justifiable and genuine reasons are made out before the appropriate court.

The Court also took note of the increasing tendency of litigants to approach the High Court for expeditious disposal of lower court cases. “Because a litigant has the resource to approach this Court with a prayer to expedite his case, he should not be allowed to break the queue and get an undue advantage unless the situation warrants.” the Court observed.

A division bench of Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Mohammed Nias C P observed,

“Ordinarily, the disposal of a case in Courts must be as per the seniority, namely chronological basis, and deviation from that must be an exception on valid and genuine grounds. No litigant should normally be allowed to jump the queue or steal a march over the other litigants who filed cases earlier. Only if a litigant files an application stating the reason for an early hearing of the case and only if the court is satisfied with the reasons furnished can a case be posted out of turn.”

When a person gets a direction from the High Court for early disposal of their case, such out of turn disposals may lead to injustice to litigants who approached the lower courts earlier, the Court said.

The Court was considering petitions filed for directions to the Rent Controller to dispose certain matters within a time limit to be fixed by the High Court. In this regard the Court noted the pendency of cases before the Rent Control Court, Chavakkad and stated that “We take judicial notice of the pendency and assume a similar workload pattern in almost all the Courts in the State, barring a few exceptions.”

In light of the above the Court issued the following directions to Rent Control Courts and the Rent Control Appellate Authorities in the State:

1. If a party wishes to be heard out of turn, they shall move an application for an early hearing based on any justifiable or valid reasons before the appropriate court.

2. The Rent Control Court/Appellate authority shall dispose of such applications as expeditiously as possible.

3. Brief speaking orders must be passed by courts, while allowing or rejecting a prayer for early hearing.

4. The courts should bear in mind requests for hearing cases on a priority basis must be entertained only in exceptional cases where ‘justifiable and genuine reasons are made out’.

5. Only after the above steps have been taken can a litigant approach the High Court seeking expeditious disposal of their case.

“Equality before law implies an absence of any special privilege. So does equal protection of laws by ensuring equality of treatment among people in similar circumstances. All litigants are to be accorded the same treatment by administering law in an even-handed manner” the Court observed.

Case Title: Prema Joy V. John Britto

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Ker) 235

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