Supreme Court: While hearing an appeal against the order of Punjab and Haryana High Court wherein, the appellant’s petition to quash his trial and consequential orders to release the pensionary and other benefits was dismissed, the Division-Judge Bench of Krishna Murari and Ahsanuddin Amanullah*, JJ., allowed the appellant’s appeal and quashed the impugned order of the High Court allowing him to retain pension benefits. The Court gave additional directions for Judgment writing to all the Courts and Tribunals.
The impugned Judgment before the Court was a certified copy obtained from the High Court; however, it was not numbered paragraph-wise.
Supreme Court’s Directions:
Placing its reliance on Shakuntala Shukla v. State of U.P., 2021 SCC OnLine SC 672 and SBI v. Ajay Kumar Sood, 2022 SCC OnLine SC 1067, the Court directed that all Courts and Tribunals, as a matter of practice, must number paragraphs in all Orders and Judgments in seriatim.
The Secretary-General was further directed to circulate the additional directions in the Judgment to the learned Registrars General of all High Courts, to place the same before Hon’ble the Chief Justices, to consider adoption of a uniform format for Judgments and Orders, including paragraphing. The learned Chief Justices may direct the Courts and Tribunals subordinate to their High Courts accordingly as well.
[B.S Hari Commandant v. Union of India, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 413, Judgment dated: 13-04-2023]
*Judgment Authored by: Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah
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