The decades-long exasperating wait for commoners in labyrinthine queues for justice forced the Apex Court on Wednesday to take the first step towards allocating strict time schedule, as practiced by the Supreme Courts of the US & the UK, with a warning that violation of time limits would result in automatic indefinite adjournment of hearing.
A bench of Justice Sanjay K Kaul & Justice R S Reddy allotted 30 minutes each to senior advocates A M Singhvi & Arvind Datar appearing for petitioner Yatin Oza, one hour to Gujarat High Court counsel Nikhil Goel & fifteen minutes to a intervenor represented by senior advocate C S Sundaram. Oza has challenged a Gujarat High Court decision to strip him of senior advocate designation finding him repeatedly making vituperative comments against judges & the judiciary,
The case has been pending for nearly a year before the SC & has reached a stalemate with the High Court refusing to reconsider — even with the SC’s prodding — its decision to strip Oza of the senior advocate designation. The High Court conveyed to the Supreme Court that in its June 20 Full Court meeting it has reiterated its decision, refusing to show leniency to Oza.
Preparing the case for final hearing, the bench said it would not permit the counsel for parties to go on arguing for days. “How do we justify the pendency of decades old cases & then devoting hours & hours together to hear arguments from senior advocates in current cases? Even in the UK or the US Supreme Courts, we do not think there is any system which permits lawyers to argue for hours together”.
Justice Kaul said, “In the US Supreme Court, the counsel are permitted only to cite judgments & not read it. But, here the advocates cite 20 judgments for each proposition & try to make good their argument by reading all 20 judgments”. The bench told the counsel that they must choose the best of the judgments suiting their propositions & cite one judgment per proposition. There is a common trend in the SC where the lawyers tell the judges that he would take 10 seconds by the clock in putting a submission. However, more often than not the 10 seconds stretch to 10 minutes.
Singhvi said, “For nine months he has been stripped off the senior designation, which itself is an adequate punishment for the misdemeanour. The petitioner has learnt a permanent lesson.” The bench said that it would consider his petition whether the HC imposed punishment was appropriate or not.
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