Courts should allow priority hearing only in exceptional cases when litigant furnishes genuine reasons: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court recently held that a litigant's case can be prioritized for hearing over and above the other cases filed earlier, only if the litigant files an application with genuine, valid reasons to the satisfaction of the court. [Prema Joy & ors. v John Britto]..Under no other grounds shall a litigant be allowed to jump the queue, a division bench of Justices AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Mohammed Nias CP said.“Ordinarily, the disposal of a case in Courts must be as per the seniority, namely chronological basis, and deviation from that must be an exception on valid and genuine grounds. No litigant should normally be allowed to jump the queue or steal a march over the other litigants who filed cases earlier. Only if a litigant files an application stating the reason for an early hearing of the case and only if the court is satisfied with the reasons furnished can a case be posted out of turn,” the order dated May 22 said.The Court emphasised that only in exceptional cases where justifiable and genuine reasons are made out, can requests for taking up cases on priority basis be entertained..The Court was considering two petitions seeking directions to the Rent Controller to pass final orders in a rent control petition within a time limit to be fixed by the High Court.The High Court had earlier passed an order in the matter seeking information from the presiding officer of the rent control court as to how much time would be required to dispose of the rent control petitions in question. The officer informed the High Court that there are a large number of matters pending before it..In the present order, taking judicial notice of the pendency, the Court assumed that a similar workload pattern exists in almost all the courts in the State, barring a few exceptions.The Court also noted that a number of similar petitions are filed before it seeking expeditious disposal of the cases filed before the rent control court and the appeals filed before the rent control appellate authority."In most cases filed before this Court with prayers for expeditious disposal, it has become a routine practice of this Court to call for reports from the lower courts and issue directions to dispose of the proceedings in a time-bound manner. The Presiding officers are compelled to give a time frame for disposal, disregarding the pendency of much older cases. This works out injustice to those who cannot approach this Court for such reliefs and to all litigants waiting in the queue," the Court observed. .Hence, the Court directed that if a party has genuine or valid reasons for their case to be prioritized for hearing, the rent control court/appellate authority should dispose of such applications as expeditiously as possible, at any rate, within two weeks from the date of moving such application."Brief speaking orders will have to be passed by the said courts, either allowing or rejecting the prayer for an early hearing. The courts will bear in mind that the normal rule is to go by the queue, and only in exceptional cases where justifiable and genuine reasons are made out requests for taking up cases on a priority basis should be entertained", the Court elaborated. It was made clear that only after this process is completed can a litigant approach the High Court with a prayer seeking expeditious disposal of the case."This, we feel, will ensure avoidance of any kind of judicial injustice by the Court contributing its part to the delay in the dispensation of justice by indiscriminate entertainment of the types of petitions noticed above. Equality before law implies an absence of any special privilege. So does equal protection of laws by ensuring equality of treatment among people in similar circumstances. All litigants are to be accorded the same treatment by administering law in an even-handed manner," the order stated..The petitioners were represented by advocates Santhan V Nair, R Ranjith, Renjith B Marar, Lakshmi N Kaimal, Arun Poomulli, Preetha S Chandran, Abhijith Sreekumar and Safal P Salim..[Read Judgment]