'Tarikh-pe-tarikh': CJI uses iconic Sunny Deol dialogue to discourage adjournments in SC
His comments came after advocates sought adjournments 3,688 times in the months of September to October, which does not help expedite cases
Taking a leaf out of an iconic Bollywood dialogue delivered by actor Sunny Deol in the film Damini, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Friday (November 3) urged lawyers not to seek adjournments in fresh matters, telling them he does not want the Supreme Court to become a 'tarikh-pe-tarikh' court.
At the outset of the day’s proceedings, the CJI flagged the issue of lawyers seeking adjournments in fresh matters and said in the last two months adjournment slips were moved in 3,688 matters by advocates.
“Unless it is very very necessary, please don’t file the adjournment slips... I don't want this court to be a tarikh-pe-tarikh court,” the CJI said. The CJI shared the bench with justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
Tarikh-pe-Tarikh (repeated adjournments) was a famous dialogue by Deol in Damini where his character rues the adjournment culture in courts.
The CJI said that now with the help of lawyers’ bodies, the time gap in the listing of fresh matters after their filing in the top court has been significantly reduced.
He, however, rued the fact that after their listing before the benches, lawyers seek adjournments and this gives a very bad signal to the outside world.
“I have been seeing that the period from filing to listing is reducing. We could not have achieved this without the support of the SCBA (Supreme Court Bar Association) and the SCAORA (Supreme Court Advocates-on Record Association),” the CJI said. “For November 3, we have 178 adjournment slips. For each miscellaneous day, since October, 150 adjournment slips were there on each day and from September to October, 3,688 adjournment slips were circulated,” the CJI said.
“This defeats the very purpose of expediting the case,” he added.
(With inputs from agencies)