NCLT JUDGEMENT RESERVED- Justice delayed - justice denied - NCLT final ...

The heavy backlog of cases and delays in the Indian judicial system are once again the topic of much discussion, with everything from government callousness to over-litigiousness to judicial activism being blamed for the 35 million cases pending in the courts at all levels.

A recent survey of litigants showed that more than 60% of the respondents believed that the delay in their own cases was due to the judge not passing orders quickly enough.

 

From the statistical data given here , we can come to understand the following information:

 

·       In 12% of the cases, judgement were not delivered even after 120 days after judgement has been reserved by the court.

·       In civil cases , there is higher incidence of judgement being delayed for more than 120 days after the judgement is being reserved

Case Name	No of days delay after judgement is being reserved
Deposit Insurance & Credit Guarantee Corporation vs Ragupathi Ragavan	566 days
Commissioner of Central Excise , Goa vs Cosme Farms Laboratories Ltd	510
ILFS vs BPL Ltd	484
Ramesh Chandra vs University of Delhi	442
Narayan Laxman Patil vs Gala Construction Company P Ltd	422
Avenue Supermarket v Nschint Bala	415
Chebrolu Enterprises vs Andhra Pradesh Backward Class Corporation	414
Ram Bahal vs Deputy Director of Consolidation , Azamgarh	385
Rajastan Road Transport Corporation vs Axeis Sonier	378

 

In nine cases, the judgement was delivered more than one year after being reserved, with the maximum time taken being 566 days.

In Deposit Insurance Case , it took nearly one and half years for the court for delivering the final judgement after reserving the order.

 

When a case is heard in depth and arguments are advanced by both parties, more often than not, the judge “reserves judgement"—to examine the arguments, do research and write the judgement before delivering it in an open court.

While the Code of Civil Procedure1908, applicable to civil courts, states that judgements should be delivered within 30 days of arguments being closed, no such time restriction is found in NCLT Rules and regulations.

The need for a time limit for delivering the judgement is not just to avoid delay, but also to prevent a miscarriage of justice.

 

A judge who takes too long to deliver judgements after hearing arguments may have forgotten some of the arguments or remembered them incorrectly to the detriment of the parties.

 

Supreme Court in Anil Rai vs State of Bihar

 

For this reason, even though no procedural law prescribes so, the Supreme Court has held in Anil Rai vs State of Bihar case that parties can file an application in the high court seeking an early judgement if it’s not delivered within three months of it being reserved. If it’s not delivered more than six months after being reserved, parties have a right to have it re-heard before a different bench of the high court.

 

There is no similar provision available in NCLT regulation . NCLT regulation should be amended to introduce any delay more than

30 days for reserving a judgement , the parties can file in the NCLT seeking an early judgement.

Subramanian Swamy 2G spectrum case

When Subramanian Swamy sought a direction from the court to the then prime minister, Manmohan Singh, to grant sanction to prosecute telecom minister A. Raja for corruption in the 2G spectrum case, the court took 433 days to deliver its judgement after having reserved it.

Naz Foundation case

In the Naz Foundation case concerning the validity of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the judgement was delivered 624 days later, or more than 20 months after being reserved.

The relatively large number of cases where the judgement is delivered more than 90 days after being reserved by the bench suggest the absence of a system to keep track of how long a case has been reserved for judgement.

 

There is no provision in the NCLT regulation that within what time the judgements have to be pronounced after being kept it as reserved as in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, applicable to civil courts, states that judgements should be delivered within 30 days of arguments being closed,

 

Similar provision has to be introduced in the NCLT regulations so that judgment on reserved cases have to be delivered on time bound bases and to avoid denial of justice due to delay of justice .