Karnataka HC Waives Objections Raised By Registry In Matters Filed From March 21 To August 31 [Read Order]

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar in the order passed while hearing a suo-motu petition to address various procedural issues during the limited functioning of courts said "In all cases filed from 21st March 2020 till 31st August 2020 (both days inclusive) in the High Court at the principal seat and both the Benches at Dharwad and Kalaburagi, all the office objections save and except the objections enlisted below shall stand waived." The bench said as directed by the Apex Court by the order dated April 6, the aforesaid directions shall be treated as lawful.

The objections which are not waived are:

(a) objections regarding non-payment of court fee or insufficient payment of court fee;

(b) objection regarding bar of limitation;

(c) objection regarding maintainability of the proceedings.

(d) objection regarding failure to furnish second set of papers (only in case of Division Bench matters);

(e) objections regarding failure to annexure copies of the impugned judgments/orders/impugned notifications / impugned endorsements / impugned communications;

(f) objections regarding the non-compliance of Rule 3A of Chapter 10 of the said Rules of 1959; and

(g) Objections regarding non-compliance with the circular dated 20th July 1998, in the criminal petitions about failure to serve the petitions in advance to the offices of the State Public Prosecutor.

The bench also clarified that all cases where the objections raised are not covered by any of the seven objections enlisted above, shall be registered for placing the same before the court. However, this order will not preclude the concerned courts hearing the matters from directing rectification of any specific objection which goes to the root of the matter and which prevents the Court from hearing the case on merits.

Further, it said if any of the objections which are raised relate to one of the seven objections enlisted above, the case will not be registered unless an order of posting before the court is passed by the court or unless the objections are rectified.

In the cases which were filed before or after 21st March 2020 in the High Court at principal seat as well as Benches where peremptory orders were passed fixing the time limit for rectification of the office objections and where the time fixed by the Court for rectification of office objections has expired between 21st March 2020 and 31st May 2020 (both days inclusive), the time granted for rectification of the office objections shall stand extended, till 30th September 2020 and, therefore, such cases shall be treated as pending.

The bench while passing the order took into account that there are more than 7,000 newly filed cases from 21st March 2020 which are pending for rectification of office objections. At the Principal seat at Bengaluru there are over 6,000 cases. However, considering the fact that a large number of positive cases of COVID-19 are being reported every day, rectification of the office objections cannot be permitted in more than 50 to 60 cases per day. Therefore, rectification of objections in these cases will require more than 100 working days.

The court said "The reason for restricting the activity to few cases is that the members of the Bar cannot be allowed to enter the office premises for rectification of office objections as it may lead to congregation and the breach of rules of social distancing."

The arrangements already started for rectification of objections outside the office where the files are taken by the Registry and the members of the Bar are permitted to rectify the objections. This practice will have to continue for some more time. Unless the situation improves drastically.

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