The Delhi High Court has decided to consider the issue of judicial officers taking leave without timely informing the advocates and litigants, causing them inconvenience.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice C. Hari Shankar was hearing a petition seeking directions for prior intimation by judicial officers intending to take leave, as done by the judges of the High Court.
The petition said one prime hardship is that parties are not given sufficient notice of leave obtained by a judicial officer.
Advocate Amish Aggarwala, the petitioner in the case, said judges of the High Court inform the registry well in advance if they are on leave and consequently when the final cause list is uploaded for the next day, advocates, litigants and others are well informed about it.
“This petition merely seeks that courts of Delhi Judicial Service merely follow the footsteps of this court and timely notice of officers’ leave may be intimated to the public,” he said.
The plea said though the trial courts’ website has a ‘judges on leave section’, the same is redundant.
The petitioner claimed that he routinely checks the ‘judges on leave section’, only to observe that updated list of judicial officers on leave for a particular day is uploaded only after 11 a.m. on the day itself. It sought direction to judicial officers of the Delhi District Courts to inform the District and Sessions Judge 24 hours in advance of their intention to take a leave.
