Not days, but years gone by: Supreme Court will not register 13,147 diary items with uncured defects since 2014

In a significant development, the Supreme Court Registrar on Thursday decided not to register 13,147 diary items that have had uncured defects since August 19, 2014. .In a strongly-worded notice, Registrar Chirag Bhanu Singh states, "These cases had been filed more than 8 years ago. As per the practice then in vogue, the matters had been returned to the Ld. counsel/petitioner-in-person for rectifying the defects noticed in the matters respectively. They have never been rectified ever. Nothing has been heard thereafter either from the Ld. Counsel or the party-inperson, in respect of these diary numbers."The notice points out that as per Supreme Court rules parties are to cure defects within 28 days, subject to a maximum of 90 days, which is well over. Further, it now appears that the matters are not sought to be proceeded with any further. "It is also not the case that the defects were merely formal in nature. The defects have remained unaltered till date and that too for no reasonable cause. It is not days, but years that have gone by. One of the oldest diary numbers relating back as far as the year 1987. No effective steps have ever been taken by anyone to even keep the lis alive. The matters have died with the efflux of time itself. Nothing, literally survives now." .The decision, which was notified through a notice on Thursday by the Registrar, will help significantly to reduce the pendency of cases at the Supreme Court, which as per the docket on September 1 was at 70,310..The Supreme Court of India has disposed of a total of 5,113 cases in the last two weeks after Justice Uday Umesh Lalit took over as the Chief Justice of India (CJI).Bar & Bench learnt that the top court has disposed of 3,618 miscellaneous matters, 283 regular hearing matters and 1,212 transfer petitions in the last 13 days since CJI Lalit brought in the new system of listing of cases.For cases filed since August 29 till today, the top court record shows that a total of 1,135 cases were filed, 875 cases were refiled, 797 cases were registered and 981 were verified cases..[Read notice]