Supreme Court Criticizes Counsel for Misleading Statement on Bombay High Court’s Order Upload
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The Supreme Court recently voiced its displeasure over a counsel’s misleading statement, claiming that the Bombay High Court had not uploaded a particular order. This erroneous submission led the Apex Court to request a status report from the Registrar General of the High Court.
Upon investigation, the Registrar General informed the Supreme Court that the order in question had been uploaded on 22nd August. However, the counsel had incorrectly informed the Apex Court on 25th August that the order was still pending upload.
A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah expressed their disappointment with the counsel’s incorrect statement. They remarked,
“we are pained at the fact that the learned counsel for the petitioner(s) has given a wrong statement requiring us to pass orders for calling for a status report of the Registrar General of the High Court of Bombay and also making observations uncalled for the practice of not uploading the reasoned orders in time.”
Based on the counsel’s submission on 25th August, the Supreme Court had previously criticized the Bombay High Court for the perceived delay in uploading the order.
Delving into the specifics, the Bombay High Court had, on 25th July 2023, rejected a revision petition, noting that the reasons for this rejection would be recorded separately. When a Special Leave Petition (SLP) was filed against this order, the petitioner, on 25th August, claimed that the reasoned order had not been uploaded yet. Addressing this claim, the Apex Court observed,
“There could be urgency to the parties aggrieved by the operative portion of the order which has been uploaded and if the reasons are not available/uploaded, neither the party aggrieved nor the Court considering the correctness of such order can validly challenge the same or test the same respectively.”
However, on 28th August, the Registrar General of the High Court presented a report to the Supreme Court, confirming that the reasoned order had indeed been uploaded on 22nd August 2023 on the High Court’s official website. Recognizing this, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition and reprimanded the counsel for providing misleading information.
The case in question is titled “Vipul Pramodchandra Shah & Anr. V. The State of Maharashtra, Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No(s). 10126- 10127/2023.”
