Madras High Court Deprecates Practice Of “Rubber Stamp Cognisance”, Asks District Judiciary To Apply Mind, Give Reasons While Taking Cognisance

Asking District Judges to refrain from such practices, Justice Anand Venkatesh said that the practice had been deprecated by the Supreme Court and the high court in its previous judgments. The court also said that if the judges continued to make rubber stamp cognisance order, an explanation would be called for.

“It is made clear that going forward, if cognizance is taken through a rubber stamp cognizance order, this Court will be forced to call for explanation. This is in view of the fact that such rubber stamp cognizance order is in violation of the order passed by the Apex Court and followed by this Court,” the court said.

The judge pointed out how, in the case of Pawan Kumar Sharma v State of Uttaranchal, the Supreme Court had called the practice of taking rubber stamp cognizance “strange” and had made it clear that taking cognizance was a judicial act that required application of mind and if no reason was given while arriving at the conclusion, the same was liable to be set aside.

This ruling of the Supreme Court has been followed by the High Court including the Madras High Court where, in Shanmugam and Others v Inspector of Police and others, the court had observed that taking cognizance without applying mind was bad in the eyes of law. The High Court had called the rubber stamp cognizance patently illegal which needed to be interfered with by the High Court.

Noting that the trial courts were still engaged in the trend of taking rubber stamp cognizance, the court has now ordered all Principal District Judges across Tamil Nadu to refrain from such practice.