Karnataka High Court Extends Deadline Given To Subordinate Courts For Cases Disposals By 3 Months

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj said "In many civil and criminal cases, the High Court of Karnataka has issued directions to the District and Trial Courts in the State for disposal of cases in time bound manner. Considering the Standard Operating Procedure issued by the High Court, the District and Trial Courts will find it difficult to meet the deadline fixed by this Court."

It added "We therefore direct that wherever this Court has issued directions to the District and Trial Courts in the State to dispose of the cases within a specified time schedule and where time has expired or is likely to expire on or before 30th June 2021, for the time being, the time for disposal of cases stands extended by a period of three months from today. This direction will not apply to bail petitions."

The court also in all cases other than criminal cases covered by the order dated May 12, filed from 19 April 2021 till 30th June 2021 (both days inclusive) in the High Court at the principal seat and both the Benches at Dharwad and Kalaburagi, waived all the office objections save and except the objections enlisted below.

The objections which are not waived are as under:-

a) Objection 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) Objection regarding non-compliance of Rule 3A of Chapter 10 of the High Court of Karnataka Rules, 1959;

f) Objection regarding non-compliance with the Circular dated 20th July 2019 in Criminal Petitions about the failure to serve the petitions in advance to the office of the State Public Prosecutor;

g) Objection regarding failure to annex the copies of impugned judgment / orders / impugned notifications / impugned endorsements / impugned communications;

The court said " All the 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. We, however, make it clear that this order will not preclude the concerned Courts hearing the matters from directing the rectification of any specific objection which goes to the root of the matter and which prevents the Court from hearing the cases on merits."

It was also clarified that "if any of the objections which are raised fall in the category of seven objections enlisted above, the cases will not be registered unless an order of posting before the Court is passed by the Court or unless the objections are rectified."

Service of Notice Through Email during lockdown.

The court also took up the issue of service of notice to the State Government, the Central Government, statutory bodies like BBMP, BDA and various statutory corporations to accept service by email.

The court said "Considering the situation prevailing in the State and keeping in mind the principles laid down by the Apex Court that the functioning of the Courts should not contribute to spread of covid-19. In the Writ Petitions and Writ Appeals filed in the High Court as well as in other similar cases, an issue of service of notice to the State Government, the Central Government, statutory bodies like BBMP, BDA and various statutory corporations can be taken care of by issuing directions to accept service by email."

Additional Advocate General Dhyan Chinnappa submitted that he will file a list of such entities along with their addresses and email-Ids with the court officer by 27th May 2021.

Accordingly, the court said "The Registrar (Judicial) will issue notice at respective email-Ids' of those entities calling upon them to remain represented before the Court on 2nd June 2021. As stated earlier, their presence is required before the Court to enable the Court to pass orders directing them to accept service of notice through email. Even a soft copy of this order shall be forwarded by the Registrar (Judicial) along with the notice to the aforesaid entities."

The direction was passed while hearing a suo-motu petition taken up to address various procedural issues during the limited functioning of courts. The matter will be next heard on June 2.