SC Directs Registry to Stop Referring to Trial Courts as ‘Lower Courts’

The Supreme Court, while hearing a plea filed by two individuals challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict, has directed its registry to refrain from referring to trial courts as ‘lower courts’.

A bench comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan passed the order.

“It will be appropriate if the registry of this court stops referring to the trial courts as ‘lower courts’. Even the record of the trial court should not be referred to as lower court record (LCR). Instead, it should be referred to as the trial court record (TCR). The registrar (judicial) to take note of this order,” stated the bench.

The apex court instructed its registry to obtain the soft copy of the trial court record related to the case under consideration and posted the matter for hearing on August 6, 2024.

The two petitioners have challenged the October 2018 order of the high court, which dismissed their appeals and mandated their surrender before the court concerned to serve the remainder of their sentence. They had approached the high court to challenge the verdict of a trial court that had convicted and sentenced them to life imprisonment in the case.