30% of pleas before 5 vacation Benches by runaway couples

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 17

The Punjab and Haryana High Court’s failure to effectively deal with the burgeoning number of pleas by runaway couples, the problem of pendency, restrictive functioning following the Covid outbreak and gargantuan vacancies of judges have virtually turned the days of the pandemic into a denial of justice phase — a period where even bail pleas are not listed for more than a year.

A day after the Supreme Court Bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice V Ramasubramanian rapped the High Court for “defeating the administration of justice” by not listing a bail plea for hearing for more than a year, an analysis of the cause list makes it clear that more than 30 per cent of the fresh cases placed before five vacation Benches were filed by the runaway couples.

In all, 174 fresh or urgent cases were listed. Of the total, 54 were protection pleas filed by runaway couples from both states of Punjab and Haryana. Just 47 anticipatory bail pleas, involving life and liberty, were placed before the Benches.

The fact that protection pleas, too, are required to be dealt with cannot be denied. It can, at the same time, not be ignored that the High Court itself ruled that a substantial number of such pleas was to get the court’s seal of approval and not because of actual threat perception.

The cases also reflect failure to come up with an alternative mechanism for dealing with such matters. A High Court Bench had in June last year asserted: “I believe it to be the most demeaning childlike work High Court judges have been forcibly tasked with by a creation of the ingenious Bar. A solution needs to be devised to cast the burden on some other alternative mechanism of redress, including by amending the law and conferring such power on the subordinate judiciary, etc.”

The High Court as of now is facing a pendency of 6,84,490 cases. The only other HC with pendency more than the Punjab and Haryana High Court is Allahabad with 7,93,154 matters awaiting adjudication.

The problem is aggravated by the fact that the HC has 39 posts of judge vacant. Of the sanctioned strength of 85, it only has 46 judges. The problem is expected to worsen with the retirement of two judges later this year.

Following the Covid outbreak, the HC on the last working day before the summer break was working at just 30 per cent of its sanctioned strength, with 26 judges holding the court. The HC, under the circumstances, may find itself compelled to take drastic steps to ensure effective hearing in more category of cases.

• Pendency: 6,84,490 cases
• Vacancies: 39 out of 85 posts 

High Court’s problem of plenty

• The SC had rapped the Punjab and Haryana High Court for not listing a bail plea for hearing for more than a year
• A study of case list suggests of 174 listed, 54 are protection pleas filed by runaway couples from Punjab and Haryana
• Only 47 anticipatory bail pleas, involving life and liberty, have been placed before the five vacation Benches

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