The new Chief Justice of India, RM lodha, means business. Presiding as the Chief Justice on Monday, a day after taking oath, Justice lodha strongly put his foot down on adjournments sought by lawyers and conveyed his view to the Bar that the “culture of adjournment” must end.
At present, there prevails a practice in court to seek adjournment of cases by merely asking, CJI lodha said adding, “The culture of adjournment must go. You cannot seek adjournment of cases scheduled for hearing at the drop of a hat.”
With a view to save judicial time, CJI set the bar high for the lawyers. “Unless a lawyer falls very ill, requests for adjournment must not be made,” Justice lodha said, in his maiden sitting as CJI.
The comment came on a request by advocate Shivaji M Jadav, who is the president of Supreme Court Advocates On Record Association (SCAORA), for an adjournment in a case listed on Monday. Justice lodha hinted at a new scheme being framed by which request for adjournments will have to be made in advance. Such requests would be dealt by a Registrar of the Supreme Court.” This forms part of his efforts to rid SC of pendency of cases, currently hovering above 63,500.
The court also frowned on frivolous petitions being filed in the name of PIls. On his first day as CJI, the bench headed by Justice lodha dismissed five PIls. In one of the PIls filed by advocate Ml Sharma on the syndrome of “Uncle Judges” showcasing the wrong practice of kith and kin of judges practicing in SC, the bench told Sharma, “You are breaking all records in filing PIls. Do you want to register you name in limca Book of RecordsIJ” He was allowed to withdraw the petition after Court expressed that the domain to act in such cases was that of Bar Council of India.