HC: Judges not required to cooperate with litigants

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 23

In a significant judgment on judicial demeanour, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that the presiding officer of a court was not required to cooperate with litigants. The officer was simply required to pay heed to the litigation before him.

The assertion came in a case where a tenant was seeking the transfer of a case from one court to another on the ground that the presiding officer was not cooperating. The matter was placed before Justice Rajbir Sehrawat of the High Court after a petition was filed by the tenant for setting aside the order dated December 17, 2022, passed by the Amritsar District Judge, whereby the petitioner’s application seeking transfer of an “ejectment” petition was dismissed.

Justice Sehrawat asserted the impugned order’s perusal showed that the court had already appreciated the material on record and found the apprehension expressed by the petitioner against the presiding officer was totally baseless.

Justice Sehrawat added the record did show that the case was more than five years old and was related to tenancy. Even the rent-petitioner’s evidence was closed way back in 2019. Still the petitioner-tenant had not completed his evidence. It was clearly reflective of his intention to prolong the litigation as much as he could.

“Needless to say that presiding officers are not required to cooperate with the litigants. Rather, they are supposed to take care of the litigations as such, without being bothered about cooperation or non-cooperation qua any party,” he said.

Justice Sehrawat observed the assertion made by the petitioner was “purely misconceived”. It was, rather, mischievous one and deserved to be deprecated “as much as it can be”. Finding no merits, the Bench dismissed the petition.

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