Madras High Court judge lays down SOP for speedy disposal of cases

Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy of Madras High Court
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy of the Madras High Court has formulated a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to help ensure the disposal of more cases by avoiding the wastage of court time in mentioning matters and preventing unnecessary adjournments.

Since lawyers generally vie with each other in almost all court halls in the beginning of the working hours to mention their cases and get them listed for hearing, the judge has made it clear that no mention needs to be made henceforth for early listing of fresh cases if they are urgent.

The judge has informed the lawyers that they could directly obtain motion slips from his Court Officer and present them before the Registry for moving lunch motions and listing fresh cases on the next day. “The court trusts the Bar members will objectively apply their mind and take the slips only in appropriate cases,” the SOP read.

As far as early listing of pending cases are concerned, the judge has placed a register in his court hall for lawyers to mention the case numbers that they want to be listed for early hearing, and promised that all those matters would be listed as soon as possible, preferably on Thursdays and Fridays.

The judge also emphasised that he would not entertain early morning mentioning for adjournments of cases that had been listed for the day and that request for adjournments could be made only when the matter reaches. If the counsel is unable to be present when the case reaches, the matter would be passed over, the judge said. 

Making it clear that all passed-over cases would be taken up after the lunch recess at 2:15 p.m. on working days, the judge also said that advocates could address the court in any respectful manner, and that they need not use honorifics such as ‘MiLord’ and ‘Your Lordship’.

‘Lawyers must communicate with each other’

Justice Chakravarthy stated in the SOP that adjournments could not be entertained on the ground that case papers had not been served on the respondents’ counsel by the petitioners’ counsel. He said, the lawyers must duly communicate with each other and obtain the papers.

Alternatively, they could also obtain the hard copies of the case papers from the Court Officer if any extra copies were available in the case bundle, or even obtain soft copies. “These matters cannot be represented to the court and no adjournment will be given on that basis,” the SOP stated.

It finally went on to tell the lawyers that they could submit the citations they would want to rely upon in their cases to the Court Officer or the Law Clerk, and that the court would endeavour to access copies of those judgements digitally, even before the commencement of the hearing.