Allahabad High Court: In a writ petition, wherein the lawyers were abstaining from judicial work due to strike due to Hapur lathi charge incident, Kshitij Shailendra, J. while adjourning the matter, said that the cases are not disposable commodities to be treated as mere statistics. Their purpose is not to provide a livelihood for lawyers or provide monthly disposal quota to Judges.
The Court through Registrar General had issued due communication on 11-09-2023 that arguments through video conferencing/ virtual mode would be permissible and necessary links were also notified in the communication.
The Court said that considering the ongoing strike of lawyers for the last several days, despite positive intervention made by this Court on judicial side on the request of Bar Association as well as Bar Council of U.P itself in In Re v. Bar Council of U.P.1, simply passing over this case would add burden to this Court and it would not be possible to cope up with the situation as the list of fresh cases is getting lengthy day-by-day.
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The Court said that the cases are not disposable commodities to be treated as mere statistics. Their purpose is not to provide a livelihood for lawyers or provide monthly disposal quota to Judges. Each case that comes before a Judge has an element of a human problem concerning the life, liberty, livelihood, family business, profession, work, shelter, safety and security of the citizen. Many of the litigants belong to the downtrodden and weaker sections of society who are defenseless, poor and ignorant. Their silent cry for a civilised human solution to their grievances and problems, and for a level playing field, is a call for justice, to be felt and heard not only by the Judges but also by the lawyers.
The Court remarked that, “however, the lawyers are not hearing this cry, whatever may be the reason which, certainly, cannot have more weight than the weight of tears and pain of litigants who have reposed all faith in our judicial system and the institution of justice”.
Considering the plight of the litigants and with the intention that on account of non-cooperation by the lawyers, no harm is caused to the grievance of the litigants and, at the same time, functioning of this Court may not go out of control in any manner, the Court adjourned the matter in the interest of justice.
The matter will next be taken up on 26-09-2023.
Rakesh Kumar Keshari v Union of India, 2023 SCC OnLine All 841, Order dated 12-09-2023
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Counsel for Petitioner: Advocate Vivek Sharma
Counsel for Respondent: ASGI Dhananjay Awasthi, Advocate Pratik Chandra
1. Public Interest Litigation (PIL) No. 2099 of 2023.
