Family courts must become litigant-friendly, not adopt rigid practices: Madras High Court

Family courts must remember that “courts are for litigants and litigants are not for courts,” the Madras High Court has said. It disapproved of the rigid practices followed by most family courts, thereby putting the litigants to much inconvenience.

Family courts must remember that “courts are for litigants and litigants are not for courts,” the Madras High Court has said. It disapproved of the rigid practices followed by most family courts, thereby putting the litigants to much inconvenience.

Justice V. Lakshminarayanan has laid down elaborate guidelines to be followed by family courts across the State. He ordered they need not insist on physical appearance of the parties during every hearing and instead permit them to appear virtually.

The judge took serious note of complaints regarding the family court procedures causing great anguish to the litigants by not letting them be represented by lawyers/power of attorneys and insisting on personal appearance even for making copy applications.

It was also brought to his notice that there were eight family courts for the city of Chennai alone and around 800 to 1,500 litigants visit the family court complex everyday, thereby leading to overcrowding of the building.

After recording the travails faced by the litigants, the judge said, the Family Courts Act of 1984 was enacted for speedy settlement of matrimonial disputes by simplifying the procedures. Section 13 of the Act states no party would be entitled, as a matter of right, to be represented by an advocate.

The intention behind the legal provision was to avoid the family court proceedings from becoming adversarial and prevent the possiblity of lawyers prolonging the cases. However, it only regulates and does not completely prohibit the appearance of lawyers before the family courts, the judge pointed out.

“Even the most educated and privileged litigants may not necessarily be adept with the legal procedure and formalities,” the judge said and clarified that litigants could engage lawyers to draft the petitions and also to represent them before the family courts after obtaining permission from the court concerned.