Pending cases: judge blames other judges for delays

In an unusual outburst, a judge of the Delhi High Court on Thursday blamed the judges of the same court for the slow pace of justice delivery system saying they encouraged repeated adjournments of cases.

In an unusual outburst, a judge of the Delhi High Court on Thursday blamed the judges of the same court for the slow pace of justice delivery system saying they encouraged repeated adjournments of cases.

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Adjournment means deferment of a case to another day.

Justice S.N. Dhingra even went to the extent of saying: “It looks as if there is an understanding between courts and the advocates that come what may, the orders of trial court refusing adjournments shall be set aside on mercy pleas and one more opportunity shall be granted.”

The self-indictment by the high court came while the judge dismissed a petition filed by a person to direct the trial court to give him one more chance to examine a witness as it had been closed when an adjournment was sought.

“The whole culture of adjournment is one of the big reasons that a case which should be decided in two or three hearing keep pending for more than 100 hearings,” he said.

The petitioner’s lawyer had sought repeated adjournments from the guardianship court in a child custody case on various grounds, including loss of file due to theft of car.

Later the trial court dismissed the adjournment applications holding that the lawyer had adequate time to reconstruct the file and the ground was “frivolous”.

Justice Dhingra said it was because of this lenient attitude of the HC that many advocates who intend to drag on the case deliberately work towards ensuring an ex-parte decree (an order in favour of the opposite side by remaining absent in the court) or don’t examine witnesses on some pretext and seek adjournment which the trial courts refuse.

They then rush to the high court seeking one more opportunity which is easily granted by paying some costs, said the judge.