Supreme Court Orders Probe into Missing Documents After Case Hearing Delay

The Supreme Court has directed its Secretary-General to submit a report on lapses related to missing relevant documents in a case. Due to these lapses, the Court ended up wasting one hour during the hearing of the case.

A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Rajesh Bindal were hearing a contempt petition that included 43 connected cases. While the first paper book was available before the Court, the second one was missing.

As a result, staff, including the Additional Registrar from the concerned sections, were called to assist the Court. However, when the staff could not trace the documents for the first forty-five minutes, the Court called in the Registrars, who were also unable to assist.

The bench directed that the report should specify the persons at fault and re-listed the matter for August 6, 2024.

This is not the first instance of the Court pulling up the registry for its lapses. Previously, a Bench led by Justice JK Maheshwari sought an explanation from its Registrar (Judicial) for listing a case without following proper procedures. The Court had directed the Registrar (Judicial) to investigate the procedural lapse and submit an explanation within a week.

In January, a bench led by Justice Abhay S. Oka expressed dismay when a civil appeal, which was supposed to be listed on a Thursday as directed, was listed on a Friday instead. Justice Oka orally observed, “What is worrying is that some members of the staff have bypassed the judicial order directing the listing of the civil appeal.”

In another case last year, Justice Oka reprimanded the registry for shifting blame onto court masters for non-compliance with the Court’s orders, calling it a “very sorry state of affairs.”

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