NEW DELHI: To avoid frequent adjournments in cases, the Ministry of Law and Justice is mooting a scientific method of listing of cases before the court.
Under the proposed system, advance notices will be given to both parties via email and SMS about the upcoming hearing, which the parties and lawyers will need to acknowledge.
“For acknowledgement, we will send a confirmation on the registered email ID and an SMS. The cases will be listed further only after this process. This will first begin as a trial project in trial courts, the hub of adjournments,” said a ministry official.
At present, if a case is listed today and one of the parties asks for an adjournment, the next date is given after consulting both lawyers. So, before a case comes up for hearing now, neither the judge nor the lawyers have any idea of what is likely to happen, which increases the workload unnecessarily.
“When a gets adjourned, the court’s time and the time and effort of the entire judicial staff, who have to prepare the case file a day in advance for the judge, is wasted. By way of technology, we can curtail the same,” added the official associated with the project.
On an average, in about 90 per cent cases, adjournments are granted because of unavailability of either party.
“It is this uncertainty (whether the case would be taken up or not), which needs to be corrected in the system,” the official said, adding if the litigant or lawyer even after acknowledging their presence in court on the case did not turn up, heavy costs would be imposed on them.
Though the concept of taking adjournments is rampant in trial courts, it is rare in the Supreme Court and if adjournments are sought, heavy fines are imposed on parties.
Order Order
■ In 90 per cent cases, adjournments are granted because parties are unavailable
■ Days before the case comes up for listing, SMS and email will be sent to litigants and lawyers
■ Lawyers need to acknowledge the same by clicking on the link sent
■ Only after confirmation, the case will be listed
■ If parties don’t turn up even after confirming, costs will be imposed