KOCHI: In a startling revelation, a judge of the Kerala High Court has said that some of the old writ petitions are misplaced from court and not located. “The registry must locate the same forthwith or get orders to recreate the file,” observed Justice P V Kunhikrishnan. The court also flayed the registry of the High Court for the delay on its part in listing cases.
“Some writ petitions have been pending before this court for about 20 years,” said the court. The court blamed the registry for this sorry state of affairs. The registry must report before the jurisdictional roaster judge about the old cases, after getting permission from the chief justice.
The jurisdictional judge may not be knowing about the old cases because, in the High Court, the usual practice is that, once the cases are admitted, unless there is an urgent memo or a petition for an early hearing or other petitions for any directions, it will not be listed except for the final hearing. Lawyers have a general grievance that the cases are not listed by the registry even after filing an ‘urgent memo’. They even say sarcastically that the “urgent memos” filed are “committing suicide and disappearing”.
The registrar general and the registrar (Judiciary) should bring to the notice of the chief justice that the old writ petitions are pending in different jurisdictions and will take appropriate steps in this regard as per the directions of the chief justice. Otherwise, “people will lose faith in the judiciary.”
“The court made these remarks while considering the sad plight of an employee of Kodungallur Town Co-operative Bank who is engaged in a legal fight with the bank for the past 25 years to get his eligible benefits. When M K Surendra Babu, of Thrissur, who was the chief accountant, approached the court, he was 61 years of age. Probably he is in his 70s by now.
This is the fate of a workman who is forced to contest cases for a major part of his life for his livelihood. An introspection by the judiciary is also necessary because the first writ petition filed by the workman was pending before this court for the last 13 years.