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Reepak Kansal v. Secretary-General, Supreme Court of India & Ors.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2020 INSC 449Decided 6 Jul 2020
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 541 of 2020
Justice Arun Mishra · Justice S. Abdul Nazeer

Background

The petitioner, an Advocate practicing in the Supreme Court, filed a writ petition under Article 32 alleging that the Court's Registry discriminated against ordinary lawyers by favoring influential lawyers and law firms in listing cases, raising unnecessary objections, and delaying matters, citing three of his own petitions that faced delays or defect-related objections, and contrasting this with the (allegedly) swift listing of a high-profile media freedom case (Arnab Goswami v. UOI).

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the actual case files for each of the petitioner's three cited instances and found that each had genuine defects (unpaid court fees, blank indexes, unsigned documents) that justified the Registry's queries, and that any delays were explainable by the COVID-19 lockdown's reduced staffing and the petitioner's own delay in curing defects, finding no discrimination. The Court noted the petitioner had filed the petition hastily, without proper inquiry or evidence, and had even improperly omitted to implead the Supreme Court itself as a party despite effectively suing the Court. The Court emphasized that lawyers, as officers of the court and members of a respected profession, must not make baseless allegations against Registry staff who were working under pandemic conditions, and dismissed the petition with a token cost of Rs. 100.

Lesson Learnt

Allegations of institutional bias or discrimination must be backed by careful verification of facts, not assumptions, and advocates, as officers of the court, bear a special responsibility to avoid casting unsubstantiated aspersions on court staff and institutions.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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