Don't want SC to become 'tarikh-pe-tarikh' court: CJI Chandrachud

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Friday urged lawyers not to seek early adjournments on fresh cases to avoid the Supreme Court from becoming 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, who was sharing the bench with justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said. ‘Tarikh-pe-tarikh’ is a famous dialogue delivered by actor Sunny Deol in the Bollywood film “Damini” where the actor rued the adjournment culture in courts. The CJI added that the time gap in listing fresh matters after their filing in the apex court has been significantly reduced with the help of lawyers’ bodies. 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, adding, “This defeats the very purpose of expediting the case. With inputs from PTI