Page Limit For Pleadings In Supreme Court Needed : Justice Ravindra Bhat

Supreme Court Justice Ravindra Bhat, on Thursday, expressed his concern over long pleadings made before the court. While hearing a PIL seeking  a Uniform Judicial Code to be followed by all High Court, he stated it was necessary for advocates to cut down their pleadings. He said–

"If you ask me what requires to be done urgently, it is to cut down pleadings. Today, all of you present pleadings which run into, it is not A to Z, sometimes it is ZZZ. You have to curtail pleadings, our tendency to spread over multiple pages, questions of law, grounds...actually we need to do that. This is subsidiary."

While commenting on the state of long pleadings, he orally remarked that there could be a page limit on any Special Leave Petition filed in the court. He stated that–

"Going forward, can we agree on a page limit for SLPs? That list of dates should not be more than 4 pages. Synopsis should not be more than 3 paras. Can we make a judicial order?".

As regards the PIL, the bench comprising Chief Justice of India UU Lalit and Justice Bhat refused to entertain it, saying that it was not a matter to be decided under Article 32 of the Constitution.