No tareekh pe tareekh court: CJI reiterates views against repeated case adjournments

“Tareekh pe tareekh” (repeated adjournments) is a famous dialogue by actor Sunny Deol from Hindi film Damini in which the actor plays an advocate.

Citing statistics, the CJI said “there are 178 adjournment slips today” and in the last two months — September and October — there were a total of 3,688 adjournment requests. “On the contrary, I find 2,361 matters have been mentioned since September 2023, which comprise 15-20% of the freshly adjourned matters. Per day, from September 1 to November 3, on an average, 59 matters are mentioned every day and ironically three times the matters mentioned are adjourned by circulating adjournment slips. They are mentioned three times and get adjourned the moment the matter comes up for hearing,” the CJI highlighted the problem.

“On the one hand, matters are listed at an expedited rate. Matters are mentioned to be listed on short dates and on the contrary, adjournments are sought. So everybody’s pressing for listing matters on an expedited basis, they come on board, they are mentioned and then they are getting adjourned,” he said.

This is not the first time the CJI has spoken against pleas for repeated adjournments. In September 2022, Justice Chandrachud, while presiding over a two-judge bench, had refused to adjourn a matter saying, “We don’t want the Supreme Court to be a ‘tareekh pe tareekh’ court. We want to change this perception.”

In July 2021, he told a counsel who sought adjournment, “We are not a tareekh pe tareekh court. We are a hearing court. So please argue.”