Jharkhand Advocates' Association Urges High Court To Standardize Passover And Adjournment Practices

The General Body of the Advocates' Association, Jharkhand convened a meeting on February 21, 2025 and unanimously passed two resolutions addressing concerns related to the judicial practice of passover of cases and adjournments in the Jharkhand High Court.

The resolutions, adopted after detailed deliberations, highlight difficulties faced by advocates and litigants due to inconsistent practices regarding case scheduling and adjournments.

The first resolution pertained to the issue of passover of cases. The General Body noted that in the Supreme Court of India and various High Courts, it is a well-established practice to allow a case to be passed over on the first call, which is often necessitated for bona fide reasons.

“some Hon'ble Judges of this Hon'ble High Court do not grant one passover and proceed to pass orders / adjourn the matter or even vacate interim orders and it is observed that such instances in the cases of personal liberty cause grave hardship to the litigant concerned particularly having regard to the fact that listing of cases in this Hon'ble Court is not consistent and certain,” the general body further noted.

“NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the General Body hereby earnestly request the Hon'ble Chief Justice and other Hon'ble Companion Judges to kindly consider implementing the practice of granting at least one passover to the learned members during entire day of court proceedings, in line with the practice followed by other courts of the Country and the Supreme Court of India,” the General Body emphasized.

The second resolution concerned the blanket rejection of adjournment requests. The General Body observed that many Judges of the High Court refuse to grant adjournments even when sought for legitimate reasons and do not accommodate counsels in a reasonable manner. Citing the legal principle that recognizes the right to seek adjournment on reasonable grounds, the resolution pointed out that there may be various legitimate circumstances warranting an adjournment, which should be considered based on the merits of each case. It was also noted that on several occasions, the Courts themselves issue stand-over notices for the day.

In light of this, the General Body has urged, “Hon'ble Courts to consider adjournment prayers on a case-to-case basis, taking into account the specific circumstances and merits of each matter and not make it a practice to refusal them including practice the printing of notice to that effect should be done away with.”

Click here To read the resolution