The high court on Tuesday asked all lower courts to transfer case documents within 14 days of the high court taking up the matters to avoid delays in the judicial process.
The division bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Gaurang Kanth issued the order after it failed to hear a criminal case as the related documents had not reached the high court by Tuesday.
Justice Bagchi expressed his displeasure because of the “unnecessary delay on the part of lower court judges in sending files to the high court”.
“Even after specific directives by high court judges, files relating to the cases are not sent on time. As a result, the judicial process is suffering and justice cannot be provided on time,” he said.
“Henceforth, documents relating to specific cases will have to be sent within a fortnight. Otherwise, the registrar general of the court concerned will be show-caused.”
Rabishankar Chattopadhyay, a criminal lawyer at Calcutta High Court, said: “Unless documents relating to a criminal case such as the FIR and witness statements are not available, the higher court cannot hear a case.”
Another lawyer said: “The original documents of any criminal case are kept in
lower courts.... It has been alleged that the lower courts do not always follow the prescribed timeline. As a result, the judicial process gets delayed.”