The Delhi High Court.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a petition seeking to direct the Law Commission to prepare a report on uniform judicial code in consultation with High Courts to make judicial terms, abbreviations, norms, phrases, court fee structure and case registration process uniform.
A Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Yashwant Varma remarked that it cannot entertain the PIL, filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, as his previous plea on the subject was “dismissed as withdrawn” from the Supreme Court.
“Your petition was dismissed as withdrawn in the Supreme Court. If your matter was withdrawn from the Supreme Court and no liberty was granted, how can we entertain it? You go and get clarification from the Supreme Court,” the Bench told him.
Mr. Upadhyay subsequently withdrew his PIL from the High Court.
In his plea, Mr. Upadhyay said he has found huge differences in judicial terms, phrases, abbreviations, court fee and case registration process used in the Delhi High Court and the Allahabad High Court. He added that the Rajasthan High Court has two benches in Jaipur and Jodhpur, both of which have several varied descriptions regarding case types, i.e. terminologies.
“Injury to citizens is extremely large because the court fees sought for similar matters and that of similar valuation in different States under the jurisdiction of different high courts are different,” the plea argued.
It said unequal court fees in different States discriminate among citizens based on their place of birth and residence and it promotes “regionalism”, hence it is a clear violation of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution.
Besides the Law Commission, as an alternative, the plea sought a direction to the Union Law Ministry to take appropriate steps to prepare a comprehensive report on uniform judicial code in consultation with high courts.
On September 1, 2022, the Supreme Court refused to entertain a similar plea filed by Mr. Upadhyay seeking implementation of a uniform judicial code in courts across the country.
The apex court referred to an earlier meeting of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of all High Courts where the matter was discussed, but most High Courts did not implement it.
