Before passing any order for expeditious proceedings, Higher Court must appreciate that cogent and extremely compelling reasons exist: SC

feature-top

Read Order: M. Gopalakrishnan & Ors. vs. Pasumpon Muthuramalingam & Anr. 

Pankaj Bajpai

New Delhi, March 21, 2022: While considering a case wherein an Order was passed only at the instance of the complainant and without notice to the accused, the Supreme Court has opined that ordinarily, before passing any such order for expeditious proceedings in a particular case (which might appear to be rather of innocuous nature), it would be appropriate for the higher Court to appreciate that any such order for one case, without cogent and extremely compelling reasons, might upset the calendar and schedule of the subordinate Court and also might result in assigning an unwarranted priority to that particular case over and above other cases pending in that Court. 

A Division Bench of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Vikram Nath observed that such petitions, even when moved before the higher Court, need to be examined from all angles, as progression of such other cases might suffer for no reason and none of the faults of the litigants involved therein.

The observation came pursuant to a petition, challenging an order dated April 20, 2021, whereby the Madurai Bench of High Court of Madras has issued directions that the Trial Court shall expedite the proceedings in S.C. No. 627 of 2017 and conclude the trial within six months. 

It was urged that though the order appears to be an innocuous one but, was passed at the instance of the complainant and without notice to the accused. 

The accused sought to question the said order contending that he was not made a party in the petition filed before the High Court by the complainant and was never heard by the High Court and various petitions filed against the order declining discharge were pending in the High Court.

After considering the submissions, the Apex Court found that that the petition was filed by the complainant without even joining the accused persons as parties and the High Court had passed the order while being not informed of the other relevant facts, including pendency of the revision petitions in the same High Court, as filed by the accused persons.

Having said so, the Apex Court refrains from entertaining this petition lest there be other complications in the trial or in the pending matters but, it goes without saying that the said petitions, if pending in the High Court also deserve to be taken up for consideration expeditiously. 

Accordingly, the Top Court dismissed the petition. 

Add a Comment