In a major embarrassment to the Allahabad High Court, the Supreme Court recently directed the transfer of a case from the High Court to itself after the High Court failed to deliver the verdict reserved six years ago.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta directed Registrar General of the Allahabad High Court to transfer before it three criminal revision petitions relating to a criminal case of 1994. The judgment in the case was reserved by the High Court in 2020, and the trial of the case was also stayed. Justifying its rare judicial intervention under Article 139 A of the Constitution, the Supreme Court said that it issued the direction to ensure speedy justice. The Apex Court gave the High Court registry three weeks to transmit the complete record of the case to its registry.
The Supreme Court slammed the High Court and raised serious concerns over the handling of the case, which has been pending before it since 2012. The Court added that the trial in the cases could not continue as the High Court had not decided the revisions.
“In these circumstances, the questions that arise are not confined to the private interests of parties in a pending revision. They implicate the effective enforcement of binding directions of this Court, the constitutional requirement of timely adjudication after a matter is heard and judgment is reserved, and the credibility of criminal process in serious offences where long delay itself produces irreversible prejudice,” the bench said.
Article 139A empowers the Supreme Court to withdraw cases pending before High Courts and dispose of them. However, the Supreme Court stated that the provision confers an extraordinary jurisdiction on it, which should be exercised in rare situations, where there is an infringement of fundamental rights due to continued inaction and no equally effective remedy is available.
