The Supreme Court has directed the Madras High Court to consider amending its rules to ensure that the cause titles of criminal appeals accurately reflect the State’s name. This instruction was issued during a hearing of a criminal special leave petition, where the bench, comprising Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Sanjay Karol, noted the absence of the State’s name in the cause titles.
Senior Advocate S Nagamuthu, representing the petitioner, pointed out this discrepancy, which led the bench to observe,
“It is not discernible whether it is a matter of practice or of rules, but the issue needs to be examined.”
The Supreme Court emphasized the need for clarity in the cause titles to reflect the State’s involvement in such cases.
The Court’s order explicitly stated,
“We direct that the Registrar General of the Madras High Court should bring this order to the notice of the learned Chief Justice in order to consider whether appropriate amendments in the Rules should be made, if there is no other impediment, to avoid the afore-noted omission in the cause title of cases.”
The case in question, “ILAMARAN V. THE STATE REP. BY THE INSPECTOR OF POLICE,” served as the basis for the Supreme Court’s directive. The legal team for the petitioner included Senior Advocate S Nagamuthu and advocates MP Parthiban, Priyaranjani Nagamuth, R Sudhakaran, T Hari Haran Sudhan, Bilal Mansoor, and Shreyas Kaushal.
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The Supreme Court’s intervention is a step towards ensuring that the judicial process is transparent and that the documentation accurately reflects the parties involved, particularly the State in criminal matters. This move is expected to lead to a change in the Madras High Court’s rules, aligning them with the practices of other High Courts and the Supreme Court, where the State’s name is customarily included in the cause titles of criminal appeals.
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