Madras High Court Judge disposes of nearly 1,000 cases in a week

"Absence of equality on the social and economic plane is a cause of contradictions. This has resulted in a society based on the principle of graded inequality on the social plane which means elevation for some and degradation for others. On the economic plane there are some in society who have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty. To deny equality in social and economic life would be putting political democracy in peril. If the contradictions are not removed, those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which Constituent Assembly has laboriously built up".Babasheb Dr.B.R.Ambedkar

The Madras High Court Bench here has embarked on a major exercise to reduce the docket explosion, thanks to efforts taken by Justice K. Chandru who alone disposed of nearly 1,000 cases in a week.The judge was deputed to the Madurai Bench for a period of three months since September 6. He had been given the portfolio of hearing writ petitions relating to government service and education matters.


The first three days of his sitting here were utilised in taking stock of the situation. The next four days being holidays in view of Ramzan, he utilised the time to segregate the pending cases which were based on the same set of facts. “The judge sat along with us in clubbing the cases which were related to each other so that it becomes easier for him to hear them. Then, he asked us to list the cases for hearing throughout this week under relevant captions,” a court officer said. The cases were grouped under various headings such as writ petitions relating to appointment on compassionate grounds, petitions relating to medical reimbursement, petitions arising out of orders passed by cooperative societies and so on.

“Most of these cases were covered by judgements of the Supreme Court as well as the Larger Bench (five judges) and Full Bench (three judges) of the High Court, and hence they could be disposed of in no time,” the officer added. He added that the judge was in the habit of visiting the Court Registry, almost every day after court hours, where he sat along with the staff in going through the case bundles and issuing directions for listing them for hearing.

Source: The Hindu