"Registrar Is Not Above Court Order" : Another Supreme Court Judge Warns Registry For Not Listing Case Despite Specific Posting
Supreme Court Judge, Justice Ajay Rastogi on Wednesday expressed displeasure with the court registry for not listing a matter despite a specific order passed by the Bench of which he was a member. On being informed by the counsel for one of the parties that the matter had not been listed despite repeated efforts and even after receiving the approval of the Bench in the form of an...
Supreme Court Judge, Justice Ajay Rastogi on Wednesday expressed displeasure with the court registry for not listing a matter despite a specific order passed by the Bench of which he was a member. On being informed by the counsel for one of the parties that the matter had not been listed despite repeated efforts and even after receiving the approval of the Bench in the form of an order, Justice Rastogi told the Court Master, "Once a date is passed by this Court for listing, the Registry has no business changing it."
Justice Rastogi said, "This time I am telling you very clearly. Next time this is brought to my notice that despite an order of the court, a matter has not been listed, I will take strict action. I will not permit any Registrar to have this discretion."
"Do not call upon the court to pass such orders," Justice Rastogi warned, "But you call upon me, I have no difficulty in passing necessary orders."
Justice Rastogi added, incensed, "The Registrar is not above our order. They are behaving as if they are running the court."
Justice Rastogi then proceeded to apologise to the expectant counsel, saying, "We are so sorry that the matter was not listed. Let me check and take an explanation from the Registrar as to why it was not listed."
This was not the first time that a Supreme Court Judge expressed their displeasure at the registry for either deleting a matter from the board, or for refusing to list a matter despite instructions to the contrary. Earlier this year, Justice M.R. Shah had pulled up the registry for deleting matters posted for a particular day. The Chief Justice-designate, Justice Chandrachud too had echoed such sentiments in August.
On November 1, a Division Bench led by Chief Justice U.U. Lalit took cognisance of the long and undue pendency of a matter which was not taken up for more than one year despite being "ready to be listed". The Chief Justice ordered, "We issue notice to the registry to file an explanation why the matter was not listed before the court for a year and a half despite it being ready. All details of [similar] matters are to be furnished along with an explanation and if any remedial steps have since been taken, those steps must be adverted to. Let the explanation be filed by Thursday."