Madras High Court: The Division Bench of Sanjib Banerjee, CJ and P.D.Audikesavalu, J., took up a petition which involved issuance of a Writ of Mandamus directing the respondent Madras High Court to take appropriate steps for framing Rules for Case flow management system and for monitoring of all cases by Courts in Tamil Nadu in true spirit and letter incorporating all directions of Supreme Court at the earliest.
The petitioner referred to Supreme Court judgment in the Salem Advocate Bar Assn. (II) v. Union of India, (2005) 6 SCC 344 to suggest that detailed case flow management rules ought to be put in place for monitoring the progress of cases. It was further brought to notice that lot of developments had taken place between 2002 and now in streamlining matters, prioritising them and guidelines have been issued in several judgments and rules have been framed to conduct matters in court.
Concern was expressed that resources available to the judiciary and the repeated formulation of rules or issuance of guidelines may no longer be effective unless and until the number of judicial officers, the staff and other infrastructure were augmented.
The Court was of the opinion that there were judicial orders which governed the field in matters pertaining to criminal trials and in these circumstances the Court did not find it necessary to formulate any fresh set of rules, though the dictum in the judgment cited continues to guide courts all over the country.[D. Vijayalakshmi v. Registrar General, 2021 SCC OnLine Mad 2790, decided on 05-08-2021]
Suchita Shukla, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.
