The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, hearing a batch of petitions that sought to set aside disciplinary action pending against the petitioners, put forth a set of guidelines for the government as well as the appellate authorities to avoid long pendency of such appeals.
Justice R. Mahadevan observed that judicial and legal services were a mission for serving the society. “The mission is not achieved if litigants are made to wait for a long time. Prolonged pendency of appeal will naturally cause damage to the legal claims of the litigants,” the court said and issued a set of guidelines to be followed in such cases.
The court said that the appellate authority while entertaining appeals, from the date of filing should collect documents that are sought to be required for the early disposal and complete the proceedings within three months, after giving sufficient opportunity to both the parties. The proceedings should be disposed of within six months.
The court also made it clear that while disposing of the appeals, the appellate authority should take into account the pendency of the appeal and if a litigant succeeds after a long time, he would be entitled to get consequential monetary benefits. This could be avoided through early disposals. If not, the government would suffer a heavy loss of revenue.
Without justifiable reason, the appellate authority should not entertain unnecessary adjournments and if entertained, not more than three adjournments. The government should take immediate steps towards disposing of such appeals at the earliest. A circular towards the same shall be issued to the appellate authorities, the court said. The petitions were posted for reporting compliance on April 11.