Madras High Court transfers to itself 45-year-old suit that 'could have been decided in 20-30 hours'

Extraordinary cases deserve extraordinary remedies, the Madras High Court recently said while invoking Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) to transfer a 45-year-old suit from a local court to itself..In an order passed on July 12, Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy withdrew the proceedings before a civil court in Virudhunagar district's Srivilliputhur in a suit filed in 1979 by a landlord for ejectment of the tenant..Justice Chakravarthy noted that just three questions needed to be decided in such suit. First, whether the tenancy was determined and terminated and whether the landlord could pray for ejectment; second, whether the tenant could ask the landlord to sell the property and last, what would the sale price or the amount of compensation be in case the tenant is ejected?These questions could have been decided by the local court within 20 to 30 “judicial active hours.” However, the suit has remained pending for over four decades, the High Court noted..“The questions as simple as this should normally take around 20 to 30 active judicial hours for the Court to decide. Unfortunately, from the year 1979, the case has not attained finality. The mosaic of delay contains various reasons, predominantly earlier appeal and remand, protracting of the proceedings by parties, impleading legal representatives etc. Conducting a postmortem as to what are the reasons for delay is pointless and would involve more time than that is necessary for deciding the lis,” the High Court said..The High Court made the observations while hearing a criminal revision petition filed by the landlord challenging an order passed by Principal Sub Judge, Srivilliputhur, refusing to reopen his side of the evidence.When Justice Chakravarthy went through the case papers, he realised the matter had been pending for over four decades and decided to intervene.The judge said that if simple questions such as those involved in the present case remain pending for so long, a litigant’s “very right to legal remedy becomes non-existent and illusory.”.The High Court further said it cannot turn its eyes away to the issue and merely decide on the reopening of evidence.“This is one extraordinary case. Extraordinary cases deserve extraordinary remedies. Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure lays down that the High Court on its own motion, withdraw any suit or other proceedings pending in any Court Subordinate to it and try and dispose of the same. I am inclined to exercise the said power given the extraordinary nature of this case,” the High Court said..It also clarified that just because the High Court will now hear the main suit itself, the parties will not lose their right of appeal and that they can resort to provisions of the Letters Patent Appeal..[Read Order]