In its order, the bench noted the explanations given by PP Mokashi, who is presently an additional district judge and one Sunil Chaudhari, who is serving as a principal district judge now.
As per the report, the present suit was pending before Mokashi from September 2009 till December 2009 and before Chaudhari from July 2015 till December 2015. Yet, both of them said they didn’t deal with the suit and were also not aware of the orders of the High Court to dispose it of expeditiously.
“The explanation offered by these two officers, if perused would indicate that in a most cavalier manner a reply has been given. It is incumbent upon the officers to check the records to ascertain if any specific order has been given by the HC. Also, the Registry is responsible to maintain the said order in the records. If this has not been done, it would indicate the sorry state of affairs in which the matters are being dealt with by trial judges,” the bench observed.
The report further indicated that this suit was pending before various judges for various periods ranging from 99 days to 1,305 days.
Another judge JR Dodiya served as a principal judge at Anand from May 2018 to October 2018, February 2019 to May 2019 and June 2019 to May 2022. She too in her explanation stated that the directions of the High Court might not have come to her knowledge at that time.
The bench, therefore, issued show cause notices to all the 10 judicial officers, giving them time till January 15 to file their responses.
Source: Barandbench
