November 21, 2024

Supreme Court Pulls Up Staff For Delay In Listing Cases

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-11-02 10:20:29

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

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It is distressing that despite the judiciary groaning under the weight of backlog of cases, Supreme Court officials are taking their own sweet time in listing cases. The judges have taken note and have pulled them up for being lax on this score. It has been found that cases are not listed for hearing for months even after all formalities are completed. This cannot be condoned.

Hearing a special leave petition filed in 2021, the bench of CJI U U Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi noted that the case was listed for hearing after one and a half years after it was filed even though it was ready to be heard. The bench then issued notice to the registry and sought an explanation for the delay.

This situation calls for an early remedy. The Supreme Court registry was rocked by corruption charges in when two employees were suspended and later arrested for allegedly tampering with the ' order in the contempt case against Anil Ambani. Although corruption could be an angle but it is more dereliction of duty which results in delayed listing of cases. It would be interesting to see the explanation given by the registry.

In 2017, the Supreme Court had introduced a new scheme for automated listing of cases. Using a "new automated, dynamic and a responsive software (ICMIS)", it was proposed to "integrate the institutional processes both on the inter and intra circuit" and "completely rule out manual intervention," as per document uploaded on the Supreme Court website. But it is obvious that manual intervention still exists and the listing process is not perfect leading to delays. The apex court has to automate processes seriously to prevent delays in listing and obviate the need for manual intervention.