'Litigants Become Disillusioned' : Supreme Court Expresses Anguish At Long Pendency Of Civil Cases; Issues Directions For Speedy Disposals

Expressing serious concerns at the pendency of cases in the country, the Supreme Court has issued a slew of directions to ensure the speedy disposal of cases.

A bench comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Aravind Kumar issued eleven directions to the high courts for ensuring speedy trial and to monitor the disposal of cases, especially those pending for over five years.

While delivering judgment in a civil appeal, the bench noted with anguish that the litigating started in the trial court in 1982 and has dragged on for 43 years. The bench said that it has noted country wide statistics of pendency from the National Judicial Data Grid and said that joint efforts are needed from the bar and the bench to address the issue.

The judgment underscored that litigants will lose confidence in the judicial system when the delay continues. 

"Litigants may become disillusioned when the legal process moves at a snail pace...We have expressed our anguish where some litigations pending since 50 years are also pending as per National Judicial Data Grid. Some of the oldest cases are in West Bengal, UP and Maharashtra which are over 65 years old," Justice Aravind Kumar stated while pronouncing the judgment.

"Litigants should be circumspect in seeking adjournments and should not take goodness of the presiding officers as their weakness", Justice Kumar said. He said that a total of eleven directions have been issued. Directions have been issued to the chief justices of the high courts to form committees to monitor the pendency of the cases. The committee shall meet at least once tow months and shall monitor old cases, especially those pending for over five years.

Directions issued by court

1. All courts at district and taluka levels shall ensure proper execution of the summons and in a time bound manner as prescribed under Order V Rule (2) of CPC and same shall be monitored by Principal District Judges and after collating the statistics they shall forward the same to be placed before the committee constituted by the High Court for its consideration and monitoring.
2. All courts at District and Taluka level shall ensure that written statement is filed within the prescribed limit namely as prescribed under Order VIII Rule 1 and preferably within 30 days and to assign reasons in writing as to why the time limit is being extended beyond 30 days as indicated under proviso to sub-Rule (1) of Order VIII of CPC.
3. All courts at Districts and Talukas shall ensure after the pleadings are complete, the parties should be called upon to appear on the day fixed as indicated in Order X and record the admissions and denials and the court shall direct the parties to the suit to opt for either mode of the settlement outside the court as specified in sub-Section (1) of Section 89 and at the option of the parties shall fix the date of appearance before such forum or authority and in the event of the parties opting to any one of the modes of settlement directions be issued to appear on the date, time and venue fixed and the parties shall so appear before such authority/forum without any further notice at such designated place and time and it shall also be made clear in the reference order that trial is fixed beyond the period of two months making it clear that in the event of ADR not being fruitful, the trial would commence on the next day so fixed and would proceed on day-to-day basis.
4. In the event of the party’s failure to opt for ADR namely resolution of dispute as prescribed under Section 89(1) the court should frame the issues for its determination within one week preferably, in the open court.
5. Fixing of the date of trial shall be in consultation with the learned advocates appearing for the parties to enable them to adjust their calendar. Once the date of trial is fixed, the trial should proceed accordingly to the extent possible, on day-to-day basis.
6. Learned trial judges of District and Taluka Courts shall as far as possible maintain the diary for ensuring that only such number of cases as can be handled on any given day for trial and complete the recording of evidence so as to avoid overcrowding of the cases and as a sequence of it would result in adjournment being sought and thereby preventing any inconvenience being caused to the stakeholders.
7. The counsels representing the parties may be enlightened of the provisions of Order XI and Order XII so as to narrow down the scope of dispute and it would be also the onerous responsibility of the Bar Associations and Bar Councils to have periodical refresher courses and preferably by virtual mode.
8. The trial courts shall scrupulously, meticulously and without fail comply with the provisions of Rule 1 of Order XVII and once the trial has commenced it shall be proceeded from day to day as contemplated under the proviso to Rule (2).
9. The courts shall give meaningful effect to the provisions for payment of cost for ensuring that no adjournment is sought for procrastination of the litigation and the opposite party is suitably compensated in the event of such adjournment is being granted.
10. At conclusion of trial the oral arguments shall be heard immediately and continuously and judgment be pronounced within the period stipulated under Order XX of CPC.
11. The statistics relating to the cases pending in each court beyond 5 years shall be forwarded by every presiding officer to the Principal District Judge once in a month who (Principal District Judge/District Judge) shall collate the same and forward it to the review committee constituted by the respective High Courts for enabling it to take further steps.
12. The Committee so constituted by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of the respective States shall meet at least once in two months and direct such corrective measures to be taken by concerned court as deemed fit and shall also monitor the old cases (preferably which are pending for more than 05 years) constantly.

The Secretary General of the Supreme Court was directed to circulate the judgment to all High Courts.

Case : Yashpal Jain v. Sushila Devi and others

Citation : 2023 LiveLaw (SC) 916

Click here to read the judgment