NEW DELHI: An unusual prayer came before a single judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently when he was hearing the cases listed for the day. A lawyer sought adjournment of hearing on his client’s petition saying the court appeared to be in a “bad mood”. And the court also humoured the odd request and adjourned the hearing.
Appearing for his client in a criminal case on February 4, advocate K S Sidhu cited dismissal of “four urgent cases, one after the other”, noting that the court appeared to be in a “bad mood”. Justice Rajiv Narain Raina acceded to his request and granted the adjournment but noted in his order that cases dismissed “were not worth admission”. “Counsel assuming that mood of the court is bad this morning dismissing the first four urgent cases one after the other with orders dictated in Court, prays that time may be granted to him to argue the case on some other day. I grant permission for an adjournment but not without saying that those cases were not worth admission.”
Justice Raina ordered the case to be listed for hearing on February 20. The hearing on Thursday was adjourned once again after Sidhu sought time to produce copies of interim orders passed in the case.
The court will now hear the matter on March 3. Interestingly, Justice Raina had passed dismissal orders in nine matters on February 4. The matters mostly included appeals filed in civil cases challenging orders passed by lower courts in service matters, a property dispute case and a matrimonial case. A plea seeking transfer of a case from one court to another was also dismissed the judge, who, however, allowed two petitions in civil cases.