Need to tweak procedural laws to reduce pendency and ensure ‘justice to doorstep’, says Karnataka High Court

Can’t afford to lag in law reforms when India is a fast-developing nation, says Karnataka High Court

Observing that we cannot afford to lag in law reforms when India is a fast-developing nation having sent two missions to the Moon and one to Mars, the High Court of Karnataka has suggested changes to the procedural laws governing it and the civil courts in Karnataka to reduce pendency in the High Court.

“If the concept of justice to doorstep is to be realised in its letter and spirit, it is high time to amend the provisions of the law relating to the jurisdiction of the High Court and the district court to hear the first appeals under Section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) governed by Section 5 of the Karnataka High Court (KHC) Act of 1961 and Section 19 of the Karnataka Civil Courts (KCC) Act of 1964,” the court suggested.

Justice Ananth Ramanath Hegde made these observations while noticing that a plea, classified as regular first appeal (FA), which had questioned a decree passed by a trial court in a 28-year-old suit, was pending in the High Court for the past 16 years.

The High Court noted that the KHC Act states that senior civil judges can hear all suits where the value of the properties or the value of the relief sought exceeds ₹5 lakh, except commercial suits.

However, the senior civil judges having unlimited upper pecuniary jurisdiction in deciding the suit, on being promoted as district judges, cannot entertain a FA if the value of the subject matter of the suit exceeds ₹10 lakh.

This is because the KCC Act states that district judges have the power to hear FAs on the orders passed by senior civil judges in suits having value between ₹5 lakh and ₹10 lakh, the High Court said.

The KHC Act, which states that it is the HC that has the power to hear FAs on the orders passed by the senior civil judges on the suits having value more than ₹10 lakh, has proved counterproductive, Justice Hegde said, while pointing out that this provision in the law increased FAs before the HC by many times due to skyrocketing of the property values during past two decades.