Bombay High Court to begin auto-listing of cases on a trial basis from December 11

In a first, the principal bench of Bombay High Court will begin auto-listing freshly filed cases before specific judges starting from December 11 on a trial basis..A notice to that effect dated December 5 has been issued by the High Court Registrar.It specified that from December 11, freshly filed matters would be automatically listed for hearing in a supplementary cause list before specific judges on a trial basis.This protocol will presently be applicable to only two division benches and three single-judges at the principal seat of the High Court in Mumbai.The division benches before which this measure would be implemented on a pilot basis are the following. .Division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor (Public interest litigations, arbitration appeals, appeals under Section 13 of the Commercial Courts Act, cases about infrastructure of the principal seat of the Court, infrastructure and tenders of projects)Division bench of Justices GS Patel and Kamal Khata (Writ petitions involving municipal corporations, election petitions, etc). .The three single-judges before whom auto-listing would be implemented are:Justice MS Karnik (bail applications of 2023)Justice NJ Jamadar (anticipatory bail applications)Justice GA Sanap (bail applications filed upto the year 2022)The auto-listing of cases before these the division benches will be done one week after the final numbering of the freshly filed matter and before the single-judges would be three days after final numbering of the filed petition.Final numbering is the number that the petition gets after all objections/ defects in the petition that are highlighted by the court registry have been satisfactorily resolved or removed from the petition. .The new protocol also clarifies that freshly filed matters, which would be auto-listed, should not ordinarily be mentioned before the judge (s).Prior to this new protocol, parties through their lawyers could approach the respective benches before the daily board and request for an urgent listing of the matter.However, the new protocol states:"These matters should, therefore, not be mentioned before the benches concerned. Mentioning will be permitted only if exceptional urgency is made out justifying a listing earlier than the auto-listing schedule.".The notice further informed that this new protocol is proposed to be extended to all other benches of the High Court in due course..[Read notice]