1 HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH,SHIMLA–171001 No. HHC/Rules/C.P.ADR/05- Dated 19.12.2005 NOTIFICATION HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH CASE FLOW MANAGEMENT (HIGH COURT) RULES, 2005 In exercise of the power conferred by Article 225 of the Constitution of India, Chapter X of the Code of Civil Procedure,1908 (5 of 1908) Section 29 of the Himachal Pradesh Courts Act, 1976 (23 of 1976) and all other powers enabling it. High Court of Himachal Pradesh, hereby makes the following Rules, regarding case flow management in the High Court of Himachal Pradesh.
Title 1 1) These rules shall be called The High Court of Himachal Pradesh Case Flow Management (High Court) Rules, 2005.
2) These Rules shall come into force from the date of publication in the official gazette.
DIVISION OF CASES INTO DIFFERENT TRACKS Writ Petitions 2 1) The High Court shall, at the stage of admission or issuing notice before admission, categorize the Writ Petition other than writ of Habeas Corpus, into three categories depending on the urgency with which the matter should be dealt with the Fast Track, the Normal Track and the slow Track. The petitions in the Fast Track shall invariably be disposed of within a period not exceeding six months while the petitions in the Normal Track should not take longer than a year. The petitions in the Slow Track subject to the pendency of other cases in the Court, should ordinarily be disposed of within a period of two years.
2 Where an interim order of stay or injunction is granted in respect of liability to tax or demolition or eviction from public premises etc. the same shall be put on the Fast Track. Similarly, all matters involving tenders would also be put on the Fast Track. These matters cannot brook delays in disposal.
2) Senior officers of the High Court, nominated for the purpose, shall at intervals of every month, monitor the stage of each case likely to come up for hearing before each Bench (Division Bench or Single Judge) during that month which have been allocated to the different tracks.
The details shall be placed before the Chief Justice or Committee nominated for that purpose as well as the concerned Judge dealing with cases.
3) The Judge or Judges referred to in Clause
(2) above may shift the case from one track to another depending upon the complexity (urgency) and other circumstances of the case.
4) Data will be fed into the computer in such a manner that the court or judge or judges, referred to in Clause (2) above will be able to ascertain the position and stage of every case in every track from the computer screen.
5) Whenever the roster changes, the judge concerned who is dealing with final matters shall keep himself informed about the stage of the cases in various tracks listed before him during every week, with a 3 view to see that the cases are taken up early.
Other matters 3 The High Court shall also divide Civil Appeals and other matters in the High Court into different tracks on the lines indicated in sub clause (2) to
(5) above and the said clauses shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to the civil appeals filed in the High Court. The High Court shall make a subjectwise division of the appeals/revisions application for allocation into different tracks.
Writ of Habeas Corpus 4 Notices in respect of Writ of Habeas Corpus where the person is in custody under orders of a State Government or Central Government shall invariably be issued by the Court at the first listing and shall be made returnable within 48 hours. State Government or Central Government may file a brief return enclosing the relevant documents to justify the detention. The matter shall be listed on the fourth working day after issuance of notice, and the Court shall consider whether a more detailed return to the Writ is necessary, and, if so required, shall give further time of a week and three days’ time for filing a rejoinder. A writ of Habeas Corpus shall invariably be disposed of within a period of fifteen days. It shall have preference over and above fast track cases.
Mode of Advance Service on Standing Counsel 5 The service of notice shall be effected on the standing counsel for respondents wherever available, against whom, interim orders are sought. Such advance service shall generally relate to Governments or public sector undertakings who have standing counsel.
4 FIRST APPEALS TO HIGH COURT Service of Notice of Appeal 6 1) First appeals being appeals on questions of fact and law, Courts are generally inclined to admit the appeal and it is only in exceptional cases that the appeal is rejected under Order XLI Rule 11 CPC at the admission stage. In view of the amended CPC, a copy of the appeal is required to be filed in the Trial Court. It has been clarified by the Supreme Court that the requirement of filing of appeal in the Trial Court does not mean that the party cannot file the appeal in the appellate Court (High Court) immediately for obtaining interim orders.
2) [..........................................................]1 Filing of Documents 7 [It shall not be necessary to file certified copies of all the papers but only the judgments of the Court below and the grounds of appeal before the lower Appellate Court along with the memorandum of appeal. However, in case, at the time of admission or at the time of seeking interim relief the appellant urges that something recorded in the judicial order of the court(s) below is not correct or that the court(s) below have misread a document then the party must place the true copy of the document before the Court.]2 8 [...............................................................]3 1 Deleted vide Himachal Pradesh Case Flow Management (High Court) (1st Amendment) Rules, 2008 dated 11.04.2008 2 Substituted vide Himachal Pradesh Case Flow Management (High Court) (1st Amendment) Rules, 2008 dated 11.04.2008 3 Deleted vide Himachal Pradesh Case Flow Management (High Court) (1st Amendment) Rules, 2008 dated 11.04.2008 5 Filing or Written Submissions and Time for Oral Arguments 9 1) [It shall be for the Presiding Judges to decide whether written arguments are required to be filed in a case or not. If any party intend to file the written arguments, it can only do so with the permission of the Court.]4 2) Cause list may indicate if written submissions have been filed. If not, the Court must direct that they be filed immediately.
3) After the written submissions are filed, (with due service of copy to the other side) the matter should be listed before the Registrar General for the parties to indicate the time that will be taken for arguments in the appeal. Alternatively, such matters may be listed before a Judge in Chambers for deciding the time duration and thereafter to fix a date of hearing on a clear date when the requisite extent of time will be available.
4) [.......................................................]5 Court may Explore Possibility of Settlement 10 1) At the first hearing of a First Appeal when both parties appear, the court shall find out if there is a possibility of a settlement.
If the parties are agreeable even at that stage for mediation or conciliation, the High Court could make a reference to mediation or conciliation for the said purpose.
2) If necessary the process contemplated by 4 Substituted vide Himachal Pradesh Case Flow Management (High Court) (1st Amendment) Rules, 2008 dated 11.04.2008 5 Deleted vide Himachal Pradesh Case Flow Management (High Court) (1st Amendment) Rules, 2008 dated 11.04.2008 6 Section 89 of CPC may be resorted to by the Appellate court so, however, that the hearing of the appeal is not unnecessarily delayed. Whichever is the ADR process adopted, the Court should fix a date for a report on the ADR two months from the date of reference.
Appeals to Division Bench from judgment of single Judge of High Court (letter patent appeals(LPAs) or similar appeals under High Courts Acts).
11 1) An appeal to a Division Bench from judgment of a single judge may lie in the following cases:
i) Appeals from interlocutory orders of the Single Judge in original jurisdiction matter including Writs.
ii) Appeals from final judgments of a Single judge in original jurisdiction.
iii) Other appeals permitted by any law to a Division Bench.
2) Appeals against interlocutory orders falling under category (i) above should be invariably filed after advance notice to the opposite counsel (who has appeared before the Single Judge) so that both the sides will be represented at the very first hearing of the appeals. If both parties appear at the first hearing, there is no need to serve the opposite side by normal process and at least in some cases, the appeals against interlocutory orders can be disposed of even at the first hearing. If, for any reason, this is not practicable such appeals against interim orders should be disposed of within a period of a month.
3) In cases referred to above, necessary documents should be kept ready by the counsel to enable the Court to dispose of 7 the appeal against interlocutory matter at the first hearing itself.
4) In all appeals against interim orders in the High Court, in writs and civil matters, the Court should endeavor to set down and observe a strict time limit in regard to oral arguments. In case of Original Side appeals/LPA arising out of final orders in a Writ Petition or arising out of civil suits filed in the High Court, a flexible time schedule may be followed.
5) The practice/direction in regard to First Appeal should mutatis mutandis apply in respect of Letter Patent Appeals/Original side Appeals against final judgments of the Single Judge.
6) Writ Appeals/Letter Patent Appeals arising from orders of the Single Judge in a Writ Petition should be filed with simultaneous service on the counsel for the opposite party who had appeared before the Single Judge or on service of the opposite party.
7) [Intra Court Appeals in the High Court to the Division Bench from interim orders of the Single Judge shall be listed for hearing on top priority basis so that they are decided as early as possible.]6 Second Appeals 12 Even at the stage of admission, the question of law with a brief synopsis and written submissions on each of the propositions should be filed so as to enable the Court to consider whether there is a substantial question of law. Wherever the Court is inclined to entertain the appeal, apart from 6 Substituted vide Himachal Pradesh Case Flow Management (High Court) (1st Amendment) Rules, 2008 dated 11.04.2008 8 normal procedure for service as per rules, advance notice shall be given to the counsel who had appeared in the first appeal letter Court. The notice should require the respondents to file their written submissions within a period of eight weeks from service of notice. Efforts should be made to complete the hearing of the Second Appeals within a period of six months.
Civil Revisions 13 The practice/direction in regard to Letter Patent Appeals and First Appeals to the High Court, shall mutatis mutandis apply in respect of revision petitions filed under Section 115 of the Code or under any special statute and CMPMOs filed under Article 227 of the Constitution.
Criminal Appeals 14 1) Criminal Appeals shall be classified based on offence, sentence and whether the accused is on bail or in jail. Capital punishment cases, rape, sexual offences, dowry death cases should be kept in Track I. Other cases where accused is not granted bail and is in jail, should be kept in Track II. Cases which affect a large number of persons such as cases of mass cheating, economic offences, illicit liquor tragedy, food adulteration cases, offences of sensitive nature should be kept in Track III. Offences which are tried by special court such as POTA, TADA, NDPS, Prevention of Corruption Act etc. should be kept in Track IV while cases involving all other offences shall be kept in Track V.
2) The endeavor shall be to complete Track I cases within a period of six months, Track II cases within nine months, Track III within a year, Track IV and Track V within 9 fifteen months.
3) Wherever an appeal is filed by a person in jail, and also when appeals are filed by State, the complete paper books including the evidence, shall be filed by the State within four weeks.
4) In appeals against acquittals steps for appointment of amicus curiae or State Legal Aid Counsel in respect of the accused who do not have a lawyer of their own should be undertaken by the registry (State Legal Services Committee) immediately after completion of four weeks of service of notice. It shall be presumed that in such an event the accused is not in a position to appoint counsel, and within two weeks thereafter counsel shall be appointed and shall be furnished all the papers.
Inconsistency Between these Rules and the Provisions of CPC and Cr.P.C.
15 Wherever there is any inconsistency between these rules and the provisions of either the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 or the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 or the Himachal Pradesh Courts Act, 1976 or any other statute, the provisions of such Codes and statutes shall prevail.
BY ORDER REGISTRAR (RULES)