After a 38-year-long grind in the snail-paced three-tier justice delivery system,a landlord who had purchased a property with tenants in Jaipur in 1985 will get back his possession on September 30 this year.
In a sad plight of affairs, the system kept debating a technical issue about if eviction be sought three years into a tenancy guaranteed for five years.
A Supreme Court bench comprising of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah said even though tenancy was guaranteed for five years under the then Rajasthan rent control law, which stood replaced with a new lawwhich provided no mandatory tenancy period, it is extraordinary that the proceedings for possession of the purchased property went on for 38 years.
The bench said that this is a case of Delay in justice is injustice.
The Court added that such delays make the people lose faith in the judicial process.
Those in a position of power must be mindful of the situation and devise ways to change the scenario.In this case, one Ravi Khandelwal purchased a property, which was already tenanted by Tulika Stores, on January 30, 1985 from Jaipur Metal Electric Company at a prime location.
After purchasing he sought eviction, but it was rejected 17 years later by the trial court on the ground that the tenancy had commenced in 1982 and five year guaranteed period had not elapsed. The matter went to the Rajasthan High Court in 2004 when Tulika Stores challenged the additional district judge’s order directing eviction.
The HC took 16 years to decide the issue against the landlord, who then moved the SC in 2020.
Writing the judgment, Justice Kaul said, “We believe that since so much time has passed, it would be a mockery of justice to make the parties go through another round in the second appeal. Thus, we are of the view that a quietus should be put to this prolonged dispute spanning 38 years, on something as simple as the tenancy issue and as to when the proceedings commenced. We are also armed with the extraordinary power under Article 142of the Constitution of India to do absolute justice between the parties.”
There are thousands of Ravi Khandelwals facing the brunt of a slower than snail’s pace of justice in the trial and constitutional courts. The oldest civil case in the country is pending before a Malda civil judge in West Bengal — it was filed on April 4, 1952 and the next date of hearing on the suit is August 31, 2023.
As many as 31,632 civil and 70,938 criminal cases are pending in different states for more than 30 years. Those pending for 20-30 years comprise 1,08,643 civil and 4,14,280 criminal cases. As many as 6. 5 lakh civil cases and 27 lakh criminal cases are 10-20 year-old.
The oldest criminal case, filed on December 1, 1958 and pending before the court of chief judicial magistrate, Amaravati, relates to a theft in a dwelling unit. The next date of hearing in the case is August 13 this year.