Supreme Court 'Embarassed' At Repeated Requests For Adjournment By The Centre
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-11-10 15:04:35
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The Supreme
Court rightly said it felt "embarrassed" in dealing with the repeated requests (it
was the second request in a month) for adjournment of hearing in the
demonetization case made by Attorney General R Venkatramani. The apex court has
been getting strict with senior advocates to avoid the unhealthy practice of asking
for adjournments to reduce or do away with the tareekh pe tareekh culture. It
has even advised senior advocates to allow their juniors to argue cases if they
are not able to attend court and not ask for adjournments on that count. In
some cases, the court even allowed holidaying senior advocates to argue via video
conferencing instead of granting an adjournment. Hence, it must have been genuinely
embarrassing for the judges to decide on such request from the chief legal
advisor to the government of India. How does the court make an exception in
case of the central government? Will it not be discriminatory?
The Centre
wanted deferment of hearing as it was not ready with the affidavit that needed
to be filed in the demonetization case. The hearing was adjourned at the last date too. This time the judges have allowed
time till November 24. The Central and state governments, being the biggest
litigants in the country and having a battery of lawyers and legal staff at
their disposal, must recognize the fact that repeated adjournments in any case
lead to unnecessary delays and further clog the judicial system which is
already groaning under the weight of huge backlog of cases. Hence, the government
must instruct its lawyers to be present in court with all necessary documents
and argue cases on the date of hearing instead of asking for adjournments. The
Centre needs to set an example in this regard and save judges from the embarrassment.
