Chief Justice Chandrachud’s concern

Last week, when the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the country Chandrachud expressed his concern over the increasing demand from the lawyers in the court for adjournment of the case, he said that he is monitoring the case from the time it is filed till it comes to the hearing for the first time. And the trial time has reduced. This would not have been possible without the cooperation of the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association. But along with this he raised the issue of increasing demand for adjournment from the lawyers and expressed concern. Justice Chandrachud said that last Friday also 178 slips were postponed. An average of 154 adjournment slips circulated on each Miscellaneous Day since October. A total of 3,688 postponement slips came in September and October. Expressing concern over excessive adjournments, the Court said that this defeats the purpose of listing the case for hearing and filing the case. Since September till now, 2,361 cases have been mentioned for early hearing. On an average, 59 cases are mentioned in the court every day demanding early hearing. On the one hand, mentions are made to quickly put the cases on trial and when they come up for hearing, an adjournment is sought. This creates contradiction and sends a bad signal. He requests the lawyers not to seek adjournment of the case unless it is absolutely necessary. There is a common phrase on the repeated adjournment of hearings in the court, date after date. The dialogue ‘Taarikh on Tarikh’ from the movie ‘Damini’ starring Sunny Deol became very famous.

It is noteworthy that at present more than 5 crore cases are pending in subordinate courts, high courts and the Supreme Court. New recruitments are not taking place. Senior lawyers often get high-profile cases. The hearing of his clients takes place at midnight or even at the residence of the senior judge. Pendency of cases is a symptom of the flaw in the criminal justice system. The reasons for this are opposition to police reforms, lack of judicial accountability and irresponsible conduct of senior lawyers.

The problem of the common man is not limited only to ‘date after date’, the common man is worried about the justice process due to the delay in getting the justice along with its being expensive and the work of the courts not being done in the regional language. The need of the hour is that the work of the courts should start in regional languages ​​so that the general public can know what is being said and done in the cases.

Delay in getting justice is tantamount to not getting justice. To make the justice process easy and not expensive, the role of police and administration along with lawyers is important. When the justice process in the lower courts becomes fast and effective, then the cycle of one date after another at the higher level will automatically start breaking. Chief Justice Chandrachud’s concern regarding the matter of date after date in the courts is important. The government should take this seriously and take concrete steps. Along with increasing the number of judges, there will be simplification of laws and improvement in the functioning of police. Lawyers should also understand their responsibility and support the judiciary in this matter to provide relief to the common people.