Kerala High Court Issues Guidelines To Family Courts For Early Disposal Of Cases

In a significant judgment delivered today, the Kerala High Court has issued guidelines to streamline and prescribe a uniform procedure for disposal of cases before Family Courts in the State.The order has been passed by a Division Bench comprising of Justices A Muhamed Mustaque and CS Dias in a batch of petitions highlighting the hurdles faced by the parties in resolving their matrimonial disputes.The Petitioners had invoked the supervisory jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 227 of the Constitution and had sought for directions to the Family Courts to expeditiously dispose of pending proceedings.In this backdrop, the Bench observed,"The supervisory jurisdiction of this Court impels us to issue directions to streamline the procedure as conceived under law to avoid failure of justice. Failure of justice in this context is to be understood to the non-adherence of rules which ensures the right of the disputants to get timely justice. These normative and procedural outlines, which are illustrative in nature, shall be scrupulously followed by the Family Courts."While the bulk of the Court's pronouncement today is devoted to the guidelines it has issued to the Court, the Court attempted to examine why proceedings before family courts were obstructed by delays. When Parties invoke the High Court's Supervisory Jurisdiction under Article 227 of the ConstitutionLitigants who were able to approach the High Court moved petitions for the 'expeditious disposal' of their cases. Inadvertently, many cases where litigants could not move court remained pending for year, the Court noted.Terming the phenomenon, 'perceived injustice', the bench remarked that the ritualistic passing of directions was clogging the system.It was stated,"Merely because a litigant has reasons or the resources to approach this Court for speedy justice, the same cannot be at the peril of those adhering to the queue. We have felt that the ritualistic passing of directions for speedy disposal of proceedings is doing more harm than good to the system because contested and deserving cases are being left unattended and the procedure framed by the Family Courts for disposal of cases is getting unsettled. Untimely interventions are clogging the system."Therefore, the Bench in its directions has expressly provided that parties who move applications for expeditious disposal of cases do so before the concerned Family Court prior to moving the High Court.What contributes to delay?While the Court did agree that it could not ascribe specific reasons for delay, the Court indicated that lack of infrastructure, docket explosion, untrained officers and staff, inept case management were a few that could be listed.Additional reasons were that lawyers and judges often carried their experience with adversarial litigation into family disputes, transforming proceedings from the envisaged harmony to an adversarial set up.This could also be a cause of delay, the Court opined."Judges as well as lawyers are not really equipped to handle family disputes befitting to the standards required under law adding to delay", the Bench stated in this regard.Pointing to the Objects of the Family Courts Act, which was enacted to help the parties to resolve their disputes in a harmonious way in preference to adversarial litigation, the Court prescribed a list of detailed requirements for family court proceedings."The State of Kerala, which accounts for 3% of Country's population, has one of the highest numbers of matrimonial cases in the Nation. The statistics available with the NJDG gives a clear picture of the story. At present, there is a staggering 104015 cases pending in the 28 Family Courts in the State. This data is alarming and if at all not shocking; it speaks about the disintegration of the family culture and the anomie our society is facing. We had a structured society in the past where everyone held hands to resolve such conflicts. Today, we witness alienation or aloofness of individuals from the larger family, society and the community as a whole. Disputes soar to fierce battles combated through the adversarial litigation. Causes are projected to establish one's rights sans their obligations, forcing the Family Courts to drift its role as conceived under law and to embark the lines of a normal court" - The Bench on reasons for the rise of family disputesThe guidelines have been drawn up after extensive consultations with Presiding Officers of Family Courts."We could feel the stress and pressure of the Presiding Officers of the Family Courts who are burdened with a huge backlog. Some of the Family Courts are compelled to board more than 200 cases a day in an attempt to clear the arrears. The delay in disposal of the cases has resulted in large number of interlocutory applications being filed on day-to-day basis. We apprehend that the backlog is leading to a collapse of justice delivery system, which stands portrayed in the large number of original petitions being filed...

Kerala High Court Issues Guidelines To Family Courts For Early Disposal Of Cases

Lydia Suzanne Thomas

"The parties who approach the Family Courts with their grievances, with a hope to get speedy justice, very soon realise that their problems burgeon, cases multiply, and their ordeal unabatedly continues due to the adversarial nature and circumstances surrounding the litigation"

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