400-800 cases listed a day, yet people expect judges to work like robots: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court recently observed that even though over 800 cases are listed sometimes before a judge in a day, people still expect the judges to work like super robots or super computers.

Justice Kshitij Shailendra said that judicial proceedings take considerable time for disposal but parties cannot be permitted to openly defy the Court’s directions during such pendency.

"The law does not countenance such audacity," he added.

The administration of justice would descend into chaos and anarchy if such a situation is permitted, the Bench further said.

“In heavily burdened constitutional courts, like our Allahabad High Court, where around 400, 500, 600 and sometimes more than 800 cases are listed every day before every Judge, judicial proceedings may consume considerable time for disposal; sometimes years and sometime decades also. Still people all around may expect such overburdened judges to become ever-working super robots or super computers or superhuman beings,” the judge commented.

The Court made these remarks while dealing with a contempt of court petition alleging the non-implementation of an order relating to the salary of a teacher.

Ghazipur's District Inspector of Schools had failed to implement an interim order passed on April 18, 2022. The State justified the failure on the ground that a stay vacation application was filed against the court order.

The Court took a strong objection to the stand taken by the State. It observed that an order of a Constitutional Court is neither a mere advisory nor a decorative piece of paper to be admired and ignored at convenience.

“It carries with it the full authority of the Constitution and the solemn mandate of the rule of law. The moment litigants are permitted to treat judicial directions as optional, the very foundation of constitutional governance begins to erode,” the Court added.

The Court said that a person against whom an interim order operates cannot be permitted to decide whether he shall obey the direction or not merely because an application for the recall of that order is being filed.

The filing of such an application does not eclipse, suspend, neutralize or render dormant the subsisting order of the Court, the Bench said.

“If mere filing of an application were treated as a license to violate Court orders, every contemnor would conveniently avoid compliance by instituting repetitive applications and then taking shelter behind the pendency thereof,” it added.

Such an approach is nothing short of a frontal assault upon the authority of the judiciary, the Court said further. Stressing on the majesty of law, the Court referred to Mahatma Gandhi’s My Experiments with Truth. 

“The celebrated dictum of Mahatma Gandhi, as expressed in his seminal work MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH, that 'no one can insult you without your permission,' bears profound relevance even within the realm of contempt jurisdiction. An order passed by a Constitutional Court, so long as it remains operative and unvacated, carries binding force and unquestionable sanctity. If such an order is openly disobeyed and yet the Court abstains from enforcing compliance or initiating contempt action merely because an application for recall, modification, or vacation of the interim order is pending consideration, the resulting erosion of judicial authority cannot be attributed solely to the contemnor.”

Considering the failure to implement the order for four years, the Court said that the District Inspector of Schools at Ghazipur was guilty of contempt of court. Accordingly, it listed the matter on July 8 to frame contempt of court charges against him. 

However, the Court said he can still comply with the writ court’s order of 2022 and purge the contempt, if so advised.

Advocate Awadhesh Kumar Malviya represented the petitioner.

[Read Order]