‘New Automated Listing Of Cases System Is In Interest Of Institution, Adapt To It’: Gujarat HC Chief Justice Advises Advocates

Endorsing HC’s new circular introducing the System Generated Next Listing Date (SGNLD) system for listing of cases, the Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal today advised the lawyers to adapt to it and give themselves some time to adjust to it. The Chief Justice also stressed that the new system is in the interest of institutions and with time, things will settle down. Importantly, she also found faults with the manual mentioning of the matter before the Court as she observed thus “30 minutes are taken up in the mentioning of the matters every day, why? These 30 minutes of precious judicial time are being spent on mentioning the matters. You mention a matter, and it is taken up. How? If the case is not on the board, you cannot make a mention in the court to get a case out of the registry. Every case has to be on the board to be taken up.” For context, effective from September 1, 2023, the new auto-listing system aims to streamline the handling of registered matters and prevent cases from languishing without future listing dates. The circular was approved by the Chief Justice and Judges of the Standing Committee of the High Court of Gujarat in August 2023 to address the issue of cases being adjourned without a future listing date. Under the new approach, cases that lack a future listing date upon adjournment get a date automatically generated and allotted by the system. The Chief Justice made the aforementioned observations when a lawyer today mentioned a bail matter before a bench led by her, putting forth his grievance concerning a bail matter. He submitted that the matter was wrongly notified before a single judge on October 12, however, when the Court was informed that it was wrongly notified, the case was sent back to the Registry and now, the matter was given quite a long date (November 8). He further submitted that the earlier system of listing of cases was better wherein the matters were mentioned before the Judge concerned and the matters used to get listed. In response to this, the Chief Justice said that he may not be happy with the system, but the new automated system is in the interest of the Institution. “It may be causing some difficulty at the moment, but it is in the interest of the institution…There were many issues (in the earlier system of listing), which were addressed in the new auto-listing system. The system has to be given its own time to settle, and the lawyers also have to adjust to the new system. Change is constant,” she added. Further, she also advised the lawyer to approach the registrar listing with his grievance and if his issue is not resolved, he may come to the Chief Justice’s bench.

‘New Automated Listing Of Cases System Is In Interest Of Institution, Adapt To It’: Gujarat HC Chief Justice Advises Advocates

Sparsh Upadhyay

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