New Delhi: The Supreme Court has deplored
the tendency of judges to abdicate their task of deciding
complex legal issues and merely resorting to quick disposal of
cases for statistical delight.
A bench of justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan
said directions and decisions passed by judges should be
reasoned with a determination to put an end to the litigation
instead of allowing it to prolong.
"Of late, we have come across several orders which would
indicate that some of the judges are averse to deciding the
disputes when they are complex or complicated and would find
out ways and means to pass on the burden to their brethren or
remand the matters to the lower courts not for good reasons.
"A few judges, for quick disposal and for statistical
purposes, get rid of the cases, driving the parties to move
representations before the some authority with a direction to
that authority to decide the dispute, which the judges should
have done. Often, causes of action, which otherwise had
attained finality, resurrect, giving a fresh cause for
action," justices Radhakrishnan writing the judgement said.
The apex court passed the direction while quashing a
Uttarakhand High Court`s direction to the state to pay an over
Rs 70 lakh compensation with interest to Sunil Kumar Vaish
whose land was acquired by the government for setting up a
printing press.
The family of Vaish was earlier evicted from the place by
the government on the ground that they were unauthorised
claimants.
The high court had passed the order in 2002 despite the
Supreme Court dismissing the Vaish family`s claim on December
23, 1981. The High Court had passed the order on a subsequent
order of the District Magistrate Haridwar to the state
government on September 17, 1993, for payment of compensation
to the family.
PTI
