Practice Of Circulating Adjournment Slips Needs To Be Continued; Delay In Publication Of Case Lists Affects Justice Delivery: SCBA Raises Its Concerns To The CJI

Stressing the importance of advocates seeking instructions from the litigants at each stage of the litigation, the SCBA requested that the practice of circulating adjournment letters be maintained without modification. Listing out several causes for non-hearing of matters, the SCBA further highlighted the delay in publication of advance/ weekly/daily/regular/ supplementary lists and sudden listing of matters as one of the reasons advocates find it difficult to seek instructions with their clients, especially those pertaining to the engagement of arguing counsel.

The letter reads, “One of the reasons for seeking adjournment on behalf of the Bar is the delayed publication of Advance / Weekly / Daily / Regular / Supplementary lists, as well as the sudden listing of matters. Due to these reasons, an advocate is unable to seek effective instructions from their clients, including instructions pertaining to the engagement of arguing counsel. It is important to reiterate that the Supreme Court is a court of final resort, and while the goal is the early disposal of matters, the aim is effective hearing and justice for the litigants. Therefore, if the practice of circulating letters of adjournment is discontinued altogether, it will seriously affect the proper representation of the matter, resulting in injustice to the litigant.”

The concerned circulars issued by the Registry without consulting the SCBA, as per the Association have caused a lot of inconvenience. The CJI was therefore requested to direct the Registry to discuss with the SCBA prior to issuing such circulars in future, as “Both Bar & Bench are equal stakeholders in the administration of Justice”.

While acknowledging the unprecedented record of the disposal of 52,000 matters in a year, the SCBA stated the possibility of maintaining the achievement even with the continuance of the system of circulating letters for adjournment. Since the Apex Court assumes the primary responsibility of efficacious disposal and effective justice, It was further recommended that the timely publication of lists be done to ensure suitable adjustments of adjournment requests in the final cause lists in advance and additionally to increase the number of judges in view of 'Judge to population ratio'.

“At best, timely publication of lists may be adjusted so that there is advance notice of the listing of each case (at least two weeks, except for fresh listings), providing an opportunity for the circulation of letters for adjournment, setting out proper reasons for such adjournment.Once the registry is well aware in advance about number of adjournmentslip/letters, it can suitably adjust the final cause list for a particular day for all honourable benches for maximum disposal of cases. Additionally, we are mindful of the fact that the Courts are overburdened by the number of cases, and therefore, increasing the disposal of cases assumes primacy. To address this, we recommend that the number of Judges should be increased, taking into account the 'judge to population ratio' in the country.

We reiterate that the Supreme Court is the court of final resort, and effective justice is the ultimate aim not only for the Judges but also for the advocates. Therefore, we strongly recommend that the existing practice of circulating letters for adjournment should be continued without any modification.”