Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal informed the bar on Thursday that the instructions issued by her on the administrative side governing minor corrections, alterations or deletions to petitions have been further modified to address the difficulties faced by lawyers.

As per the modified instruction, the draft amendment submitted by lawyers making minor corrections/ deletions to petitions, shall be placed before the bench hearing the case and not before Registrar (Judicial).

The Chief Justice said the same in open court after bar members brought the issue to notice of the Chief Justice (CJ).

The lawyers today flagged the delay in clearance of filings by the registry after the recent instruction against overwriting or interpolation in the case files.

The issue originated from an instruction issued on September 15 by the Registrar (Judicial) of the High Court.

"As directed by Honourable Chief Justice, all the Litigants, Stakeholders and Party-in-Person are hereby informed that if any interpolation/correction/ overwriting/ deletion by using whitener/ striking of is found in the Petition/Application, without initials of the Petitioner/Applicant and the Notary concerned, at the time of filing, the same shall not be accepted by the Registry," the instructions said.

A subsequent instruction said that "minor corrections, alterations or deletions can be done by filing draft amendments under the signature of the Advocate/Party-in-Person, as the case may be, which shall be subject to approval by the Registrar (Judicial)."

However, lawyers today said that awaiting approval for the draft amendments from Registrar (Judicial) was leading to undue delays in filings.

"Minor typographical mistakes are being objected to by the registry. we are in the last week before Diwali and there is a huge rush of filings. My request is that the old system may continue," a lawyer told the Court.

The CJ then said that the portion of the subsequent instruction which said draft amendment of corrections deletions "shall be subject to approval by the Registrar (Judicial)" has been deleted and the said deletion has been notified today.

"The instruction created some problem for lawyers. So I have modified when I came to know about it. This was not in my knowledge, nobody came to me, nobody told me this problem. As soon as I came to know that draft amendment are being placed before Registrar (Judicial), the Registrar (Judicial) is burdened with 100s of cases on a daily basis. So I said why would you do it. So now I have modified the instruction. The draft amendment will not be going to Registrar (Judicial). As soon as you file a draft amendment, it will be placed along with the main matter before the court and it will be for the court to decide whether to allow the draft amendment or not. The line 'subject to approval of Registrar (Judicial)' was creating problem. That came to my knowledge only yesterday," the CJ responded.

As regards the pending matters for scrutiny are concerned, the CJ said that there is a rush due to Diwali but the Registrar (Judicial) and Registrar General are working with extra force and they have assured the CJ that everything will be streamlined by Saturday, October 11.

The CJ and Justice DN Ray who was sitting along with CJ also urged lawyers to resort to dialogue with the Bench before going on monologue.

The Gujarat High Court Advocates' Association (GHCAA) had earlier written a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai for transfer of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal, stating that her posting at the High Court has resulted in problems for lawyers and litigants.

The GHCAA had taken specific objection to the September 15 instruction on the ground that it had resulted in major delays in filing and clearance of cases. 

The CJ today underscored that the instructions/ SOP has been drafted for the smooth functioning of the court and if there are any individual issues with respect to the same, it should be pointed out by the bar instead of blaming each other.

"If any individual case, you are facing difficulty, then come to me. It is always a collective effort of the bar and bench for smooth functioning of the High Court. Banging each other is not going to help," the CJ said.

"Before resorting to monologue, resort to dialogue," Justice Ray weighed in.