Court No. - 37
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 42415 of 2019 Petitioner :- Smt. Ayesha Bibi Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Praveen Kumar Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Ashok Kumar Pandey
Hon'ble Abhinava Upadhya,J. Hon'ble Ravi Nath Tilhari,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner; Shri Rajesh Kumar Jaiswal, learned counsel for the respondent no. 4 and learned Standing Counsel for the State-respondents no. 1, 2 & 3.
A Reference Case No. 1/2017 (Ayesha Bibi Vs. Dhanji Devi and others) under Section 3-H(4) of the National Highways Act, 1956 is stated to be pending before the 4th Additional District & Sessions Judge/Special Judge (E.C. Act), Ghazipur since 2017 and has not yet been decided and the petitioner is still awaiting compensation to be paid.
The reference case is of the year 2017. In the absence of necessary pleadings, this Court is not aware of the pendency of other old cases before the court concerned who is in seize of the present matter. Any direction for the early disposal of this suit would in fact amount to giving priority to the above suit over and above other cases which may be pending before the court concerned since before institution of the suit in question.
Reference may be made to the decision of Division Bench of this Court in Km. Shobha Bose Vs. Judge Small Causes and others, reported in 2010 (1) ADJ 531 (DB) wherein it has been held as under:
"We are of the opinion that power to direct expeditious disposal of suit or for that matter any lis which, in sum and substance, means out of turn disposal is to be exercised sparingly in extraordinary circumstances and not in a routine manner. It is fit to be exercised only when the Court comes to the conclusion that delay would cause gross injustice. However, while deciding this issue, the Court would bear in mind that it does not cause injustice to other litigants, who are waiting for justice from before because the very nature of order delays cases filed earlier. It causes resentment and dissatisfaction to those who are waiting for justice from before. It should be exercised only when it comes to the notice of this Court that Judge in seisin of the case is purposely avoiding to dispose of the suit for any oblique motive, which may defeat the justice. An order for expeditious disposal in a routine manner can not be countenanced."
In view of the aforesaid, We are not inclined to interfere in the matter and to issue any positive direction to the court concerned for the early disposal of the reference case.
However, the writ petition is being disposed of with the observation that the court below will decide the aforesaid reference case without unnecessary delay, according to the length of pendency of cases in its court keeping in mind the interest of the parties and without granting unnecessary adjournment to either of the parties.
Order Date :- 19.12.2019 Sunil Kr. Gupta (Ravi Nath Tilhari, J.) (Abhinava Upadhya, J.)