Lawyer moves Kerala High Court alleging only 20 cases listed a day before one of the sitting judges

A lawyer has moved the Kerala High Court alleging that only a very limited number of cases are listed each day before one of the sitting judges of the High Court [Yeshwanth Shenoy v The Chief Justice, High Court of Kerala & Ors.]..The petitioner in this case, advocate Yeshwanth Shenoy, has challenged the curtailment of the list of cases before Justice Mary Joseph to around 20 cases, when most judges have over 100 cases listed before them each day. According to him, the Chief Justice of the High Court, is the master of roster and he alone has the power to direct the High Court registry on how to list matters and no other judges can interfere with the same. In case it is the Chief Justice himself who has directed the registry to post a short list before Justice Joseph, the same would violate Article 14 of the Constitution of India, the lawyer contended. The petitioner-lawyer said that he was shocked at hearing that the single-judge's court only has 20 matters before it each day, especially since he had already noticed that many matters are adjourned. Moreover, many a time, the judge does not complete even the short list of cases, Shenoy stated. .Today, when the matter came up before Justice Shaji P Chaly, Shenoy submitted that he is seeking an interim relief in the form of a direction to the High Court Registrar General to to ensure that the listing of matters before Justice Joseph's court is done in accordance with the standard criteria applicable to all other judges, without curtailing it to 20 cases.He also pointed out that even today only 20 cases were listed before the judge. Justice Chaly, upon seeing that there was no representation for the Registrar General, directed that he engage a counsel.The matter will be considered next on March 3, Friday..Shenoy's petition pointed out that the backlog of cases and rising pendency have been a sore point of contention between the executive and the judicary, with the former blaming court vacations and the latter blaming judicial vacancies. He underscored that if some judges start limiting the number of cases before them so drastically, it would negate the goodwill brought about by other judges who hear hundreds of cases each day, work 18 hour shifts and even sit through the night to finish the matters before them. "If every Judge of the High Court limits the number of matters before them to 20, the institution will die its natural death. Already backlog of cases has broken the back of the Judiciary and if every Judge decides to hear only 20 matters a day, then the Institution itself will not survive", the plea said.The plea also criticised the lack of action from the Bar Council of Kerala and the Kerala High Court Advocates' Association in this regard."If lawyers have the fear of the judiciary or from elsewhere, that is not conducive to the effectiveness of judiciary itself, that would be self- destructive", the plea stated..Apart from the issues with the daily listing of cases, Shenoy also disclosed in his plea that he had previously filed an in-house complaint against Justice Joseph as he has not yet been given a certified copy of an order passed by Justice Joseph on February 9 this year.Since he needed to get the certified copy in order to proceed further in the matter, he enquired about the delay. He claimed in the plea that he was then informed that the single-judge is "lethargic as regards issuance of certified copies"."In the Petitioner’s almost 22 years of practice, he has not come across a Judge so wantonly acting in breach of the governing principles of law or procedure", the plea said..In light of the above, the plea sought a direction to the Registrar General of High Court to have a standard criterion for listing matters before various courts in accordance with the directions of the Chief Justice.It further sought a declaration that a minimum of 50 matters must be listed before every court in the High Court in addition to a ‘final disposal’ list, "considering the pendency of matters before the High Court and the right of litigants to Speedy Justice which is a fundamental right recognised under Article 21 of the Constitution of India".[Read Order]