800 cases a day, and public expects judges to work like ‘supercomputers’: Allahabad HC
Allahabad HC said judges handling up to 800 cases daily cannot be expected to be superhuman and warned against treating court orders as optional.
Even though as many as 800 cases are listed before a judge in a day, people expect judges to work like a supercomputer or superhumans. The observation was recently made by the Allahabad High Court, which also warned against flouting court orders during the pendency of cases.
Burden of heavy caseloads
Pointing out that judicial proceedings can often be time-consuming, Justice Kshitij Shailendra said that parties cannot be allowed to openly violate a court order due to the situation.
"The law does not countenance such audacity," he said, adding that if such a situation is permitted, justice would lapse into chaos and anarchy.
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“In heavily burdened constitutional courts, like our Allahabad High Court, where around 400, 500, 600 and sometimes more than 800 cases are listed every day before every Judge, judicial proceedings may consume considerable time for disposal; sometimes years and sometimes decades also,” stated Justice Kshitij Shailendra.
“Still, people all around may expect such overburdened judges to become ever-working super robots or super computers or superhuman beings,” he added as quoted by the Bar and Bench.
Contempt petition over salary order
The remarks were made during the hearing of a contempt petition alleging that a court order regarding the salary of a teacher has not been implemented by the concerned authorities.
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The petition relates to Ghazipur's District Inspector of Schools' alleged failure to comply with an interim order passed on April 18, 2022.
When the state government justified the order arguing that a stay vacation application was filed against it, the court expressed displeasure against the argument, stating that an order of a constitutional court is neither just an advisory nor a decorative piece of paper that can be ignored at convenience.
‘Court orders not optional’
“It carries with it the full authority of the Constitution and the solemn mandate of the rule of law. The moment litigants are permitted to treat judicial directions as optional, the very foundation of constitutional governance begins to erode,” stated the bench.
It further stated that the filing of such an application neither permits the person against whom an interim order has been issued to determine whether he would abide by the direction, nor does such an application eclipse, suspend, neutralise or render dormant the subsisting order.
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“If mere filing of an application were treated as a license to violate Court orders, every contemnor would conveniently avoid compliance by instituting repetitive applications and then taking shelter behind the pendency thereof,” stated the court.
The court pointed out that the District Inspector of Schools at Ghazipur failed to implement the order for four years and was hence guilty of court and listed the matter for hearing on July 8 for framing contempt of court charges against him.