Practice Of Seeking Adjournments A Big Cause For Delay In Justice Delivery

The Supreme Court recently lamented a lawyer for seeking adjournment in a bail matter owing to his lack of preparation. According to the top court the adjournment-seeking routine that the court has become accustomed to, is a prime reason for delay in the justice delivery system.

From trial courts to the top most court in the country, the judiciary is plagued with a heavy backlog of cases, one of the top causes for the delay in justice administration is the frequency with which lawyers seek adjournments. Whether it be bail matters or matrimonial disputes, lawyers find the flimsiest of reasons to get their hearing adjourned for another date. 

The adjournment culture in Indian courts is so prevalent in India's judiciary system that the Bombay High  Court had to once call it a day at 4 PM because no judge was ready to present his case. Recalling the incident back in 2008, Justice Swatanter Kumar, the then Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court had remarked “This is an unhappy state of affairs.” 

From not having case papers to the absence of the arguing counsel to present the matter, there is no dearth of excuses to seek adjournments. While lawyers may come up with some of the most bizarre reasons for seeking adjournments, more often than not, it is just a case of their unpreparedness for the matter. Although a lawyer's case diary might be full in terms of dates and scheduled hearings, he may come across as someone falling short in meeting his basic responsibilities towards the litigant and the court.

In the present case, the litigant, an 81-year-old man has been waiting for his plea for the remission of sentence to be heard by the Supreme Court. The fact that he has been languishing behind bars for 11 years goes does not help the cause of justice administration either. No wonder the system is often criticised for its tareekh pe tareekh culture.

While Justice D.Y. Chandrachud has previously made it clear that the reasons for seeking adjournments may only be on grounds of Covid 19 or a bereavement in the family, there is no dearth of inventive reasoning given for seeking adjournments. Although an adjournment seems a rather mundane and innocuous part of the system, the compounding effect of such practices when not done for bonafide reasons fails the court as well as the lawyer in his duty toward the litigant.