The Supreme Court on Thursday lamented that courts are always squarely blamed for delays in case disposal, even though it was sometimes the lawyers and litigants who contributed to such delays.
The aforesaid observation was made by a vacation bench of Justice PV Sanjay Kumar and Justice B Varale after a young lawyer sought an adjournment of a civil appeal filed in 2017 as the arguing counsel was unwell.
Subsequently, Justice Kumar asked the lawyer why he is not arguing, and if he is not attached to the office. The advocate responded that he was not aware of the facts of the case as he had not read the case brief.
This led Justice Kumar to note that the matter came up for hearing after 2019, but the lawyers are yet not ready to argue. He added that yesterday the bench sat till 12:30 PM, but they did not think they would be able to sit till 12. Consecutively, he lamented that courts are blamed for delay, but the bench is sitting in vacation but nobody is there to argue.
Furthermore, the Court also urged young lawyers to seize opportunities to argue cases when their seniors are not available, more so during vacation hearings when senior lawyers may be on holiday abroad. He opined that youngsters must take advantage when their seniors are going on holiday abroad.
The bench mentioned that such a practice should be adopted as the norm that juniors argue in the absence of senior lawyers, unless there are specific instructions to the contrary.
The top court then proceeded to question if the arguing counsel in question did not allow his juniors to argue or read the office briefs. The lawyer replied that juniors were allowed to argue the matter.
The Court remarked that it would grant the adjournment request, but insisted that the junior lawyer must argue the case when it is taken up next. The court scheduled the matter for hearing next week.