'Registry Has Messed Up The Cause List' : Justice AS Oka Expresses Dismay

Justice Abhay Oka today (October 1) expressed dismay over the Registry's handling of Tuesday's cause list for his bench, noting that it was confusing.

Justice Oka commented, “Matters which have been listed on top have gone down. There is a complete mistake committed by the Registry.”

The first case yesterday as per Court order was listed as Item No. 4, and two cases supposed to be taken up on top of the board were listed as Item Nos. 3 and 45. Further, a case supposed to be kept in the first ten matters was listed as Item No. 31, causing confusion regarding the order the cases were to be taken up by the bench.

Responding to a counsel's query whether the Court would have time to hear his matter listed at serial no. 31, Justice Oka remarked, “We don't know. The Registry has messed up the cause list today. They don't know how to prepare a cause list. It was supposed to be in the first 10 matters, but they have kept it at 31.”

During the mentioning of cases before the bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih, Justice Oka pointed out that the serial numbers had not been assigned according to court orders.

The Court has expressed frustration with the Registry's functioning many times in the past, particularly regarding Registry's defiance of orders related to listing.

On September 20, the Supreme Court sought an explanation from the Registry for listing a bail plea in a money laundering case earlier than the scheduled date of October 14, contrary to a previous court order.

A bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih on August 27 sought explanation from the Registry for not listing a case explicitly ordered to be listed by the Court on that date.

In January this year, a bench of Justice Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan noted with dismay that a civil appeal ought to have been listed on a Thursday, as directed, instead of Friday when it was listed.

In another case, Justice Oka last year pulled up the registry for shifting the blame on court masters for non-compliance with the court's orders, calling it a 'very sorry state of affairs'.

The Supreme Court bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Sanjay Karol on May 6 sought an explanation from its Registrar (Judicial) against the listing of the case without following the proper procedure.

In a related issue regarding functioning of the Registry, another bench of the Court recently warned the Registry of serious consequences if errors were found in the future. In that case, a bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra had found that the paper book of an SLP did not contain a previous order from August last year and lacked the necessary office reports.