Mohammed Hussain Warekar v. Union of India & Ors.
Background
The petitioner had two appeals (CCI/568/1988 and CCI/569/1988) pending before the First Cooperative Court at Mumbai for a very long time. He approached the Supreme Court by way of a writ petition seeking a direction that these long-pending appeals be decided.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court directed the First Cooperative Court, Mumbai, to dispose of both pending appeals within four months from the date it is informed of the order, and ordered that the ad-interim relief already granted by the Supreme Court would continue until those appeals are decided. With these directions, the writ petition itself was disposed of, and the Court directed that intimation of the order be sent to the Cooperative Court forthwith. This order fully grants the specific relief the petitioner sought in this writ petition (a time-bound direction for disposal), even though the underlying appeals themselves remain to be decided on their own merits by the Cooperative Court.
Lesson Learnt
When a case has languished for years before a lower forum, a litigant can approach a higher court for a specific, time-bound direction compelling that forum to decide the matter: this is a recognised and effective remedy against inordinate delay, separate from arguing the merits of the underlying dispute itself.