"People will lose faith in judiciary": Gujarat High Court on case pending before civil court for 28 years

The Gujarat High Court Tuesday took exception to the pendency of an 'ejectment suit' (plea for removing a tenant from a property) for over 28 years in a civil court in Rajkot..A division bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh J Shastri was surprised to note that the ejectment suit against an 'Aanganwadi' was pending for last 28 years and said that such instances will lead to people losing faith in judiciary."This matter is pending from 1995 and in next two years it would be 30 years old. This isn't how an ejectment suit can be kept pending. People will lose confidence in courts," CJ Kumar remarked..Advocate Moon Shah, who was representing one of the litigants in the suit, agreed with the Bench and went on to inform that there are several such matters which are pending before trial courts."The problem is with the system," Shah pointed out.To this, CJ Kumar responded saying the system isn't a problem. "Not the system. It is with the person, who manages the system. Suppose in a case, an advocate seeks adjournment for cross-examination (of a witness) the judge can give time but if that advocate seeks adjournment on 10 different occasions, the judge then must impose heavy costs," CJ Kumar observed..Specifically on pendency, the Chief Justice pointed out that there are over 178 criminal cases which are more than 40 years old."In last six months of my monitoring, I can say out of 178 criminal cases pending for over 40 years before various trial courts, around 150 have been disposed of. This is because of intervention by the administrative judges (of the High Court)," the CJ said.At this, Shah pointed out the "very pitiable condition" of litigants due to the pendency of such cases. "We will set right the pitiable condition, don't worry," CJ assured the counsel..This is not the first time that the Chief Justice has spoken against the pending cases in the State.Recently on December 19, 2022 the bench led by CJ Kumar had issued contempt of court notices to nearly 10 Judicial Officers for failing to dispose of a suit pending since 1977.In November, 2022, the bench of CJ Kumar had noted that over 137 cases have been pending in the High Court for more than 40 years. He had therefore, said that these old matters would be disposed of on priority.