The Chief Justice of Madras High Court Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani has decided to lead by example by conducting her court proceedings for a week during the month-long summer vacation in May to reduce the docket explosion in the court and to dispose of cases that were pending for long.
A notification issued by Registrar (Judicial) M. Jothiraman on Friday stated that the first Division Bench comprising the Chief Justice and Justice M. Duraiswamy had decided to sit between May 27 and May 31 and hear cases that fall within their portfolio in an attempt to clear the backlog.
During the special sitting, public interest litigation petitions, writ appeals and writ petitions relating to unauthorised constructions, land encroachment and forests, and writ petitions as well as civil revision petitions relating to decisions of Debt Recovery Tribunals and Debt RecoveryAppellate Tribunal would be taken up for hearing.
The Registry has been specifically directed to publish a list of such cases that were pending in the court for more than five years and also obtain the consent of the lawyers concerned for listing the cases during summer vacation. The Registry had begun the process of identifying the cases that were filed before 2014.
“Advocates/parties concerned are hereby requested to extend their fullest cooperation to the initiative of the Hon’ble Chief Justice to reduce/weed out the pendency of old cases pertaining to the Hon’ble First Division Bench,” Mr. Jothiraman said and requested the lawyers to submit their letters of consent before May 15.