Appellate courts must respect the heavy docket pressures faced by courts below them and should avoid imposing strict timelines for disposing off cases, the Supreme Court said on Friday..A Bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and AG Masih said that the Supreme Court is averse to imposing deadlines for High Courts or district courts to decide cases.The Court made the observation while hearing a plea by a man involved in a matrimonial dispute, seeking the return of his passport and the expeditious hearing of his quashing petition pending before the High Court.When counsel for the petitioner requested the apex court to direct the High Court to dispose of the matter within a strict four-week timeline, Justice Nagarathna declined to issue such a mandate."We don’t even like to indicate to district judges about dates for disposal. We will not do it for the High Court also. Every judge has their own docket to be complied with every day. You can request the High Court," she remarked.Recalling her own tenure as a judge in the High Court, Justice Nagarathna highlighted how fixed-timeline orders from higher courts are perceived by trial and High Court benches."When we were there in the High Court, we remember how we would treat such orders where the Supreme Court used to direct. Let us be frank. Our feeling then we do not want to replicate in a different way just because we are sitting here," she said..The petitioner approached the top court contending that multiple legal proceedings were underway arising out of matrimonial discord, including a look out circular (LOC).The counsel argued that despite an explicit order of protection granted by the High Court, the petitioner was arrested following his father's demise and his passport was impounded, severely impacting his livelihood.It was further submitted that the High Court had repeatedly adjourned the quashing petition along with the application seeking the return of the passport, eventually deferring the matter to February 2027.The Supreme Court, while refusing to set a fixed date, granted liberty to the petitioner to move the High Court for an earlier hearing date."We reserve liberty to the petitioner herein to make an application for advancement of the case from Feb 2027 to an early date. If such an application is made the High Court shall consider the same having regards to the facts of the case and the fact that the petitioner is also seeking interim relief. The high court shall endeavour to dispose of the main matter as early as possible," the Court ordered.
