The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a fresh circular tightening the procedure for seeking adjournments and making it clear that deferment requests will be entertained only in exceptional circumstances.

The new regime would operate in supersession of its earlier circulars dated November 29, 2025 and December 2, 2025.

The circular deals separately with fresh and after-notice matters and regular matters, with no adjournments allowed when it comes to the latter.

For fresh and after-notice matters, adjournment letters have to be circulated by advocates-on-record or parties-in-person. But that liberty is now tied to a stricter process.

The requesting side must serve an advance copy on the other side or caveator and submit the request with proof of service before 11 am on the previous working day.

The circular also gives the opposite side a window to oppose the request.

As per the circular, the other side or caveator “will have liberty to raise objection to such a request” through a response on the notified email before 12 noon, and such objection, if any received, will also be circulated before the Court.

The Court has also made disclosure of reasons and prior adjournments mandatory.

As per the circular,

“Specific reason for seeking adjournment and number of adjournments already sought in the case shall be mentioned.”

Pertinently, adjournments will not be considered routinely.

“Adjournment of the case will be considered only under exceptional circumstances i.e., bereavement in the family or medical / health condition of the Advocate / Party in-person or such other genuine reason to the satisfaction of the Hon’ble Court,” the circular makes it clear.

The March 18 circular also places clear limits on repeated deferment requests.

“Letters seeking adjournment in fresh cases are permitted to be circulated only once.”

In another significant restriction, two consecutive adjournments, irrespective of which party is seeking an adjournment, shall not be permitted without the case being listed before the Court.

The request must also be submitted “in the prescribed format as per Annexure - A” through the designated email address, adjournment.letter@sci.nic.in.

For regular matters, the Court has totally done away with adjournments.

“No Letters seeking for adjournment of regular cases listed before the Hon’ble Courts will be permitted,” the circular says.

[Read Circular]