Supreme Court: General guidelines issued by the High Court cannot override the specific directions given by Supreme Court

One common reason mentioned by the concerned

court is about the guidelines issued by the High

Court for functioning of Court(s) within the State

during the pandemic period for taking up only

urgent cases. Thus, the trials in the concerned

case could not proceed despite the peremptory

direction given by this Court. This reason, in our

opinion, is unacceptable. For, general guidelines

issued by the High Court cannot override the

direction(s) given by this Court on the judicial

side in the given case, which the concerned

Court(s) and all concerned are expected to comply

with without any demur in its letter and spirit,

unless relaxed by this Court.

S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A

RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATION NO.1338/2020

IN

SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CRL.) NO.11315/2019

ANKIT MAHESHWARI ALIAS CHINTOO Vs  THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

Date : 14-08-2020 These matters were called on for hearing today.

CORAM :

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE A.M. KHANWILKAR

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE DINESH MAHESHWARI

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJIV KHANNA

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following

O R D E R

These matter(s) are listed before us with

office report(s) mentioning about non-compliance of

the directions given for completing the trial

within the specified period in terms of order(s)

passed by this Court.

We have perused the communication(s) sent by

the respective Courts, which incidentally are from

the same State of Madhya Pradesh.

One common reason mentioned by the concerned

court is about the guidelines issued by the High

Court for functioning of Court(s) within the State

during the pandemic period for taking up only

urgent cases. Thus, the trials in the concerned

case could not proceed despite the peremptory

direction given by this Court. This reason, in our

opinion, is unacceptable. For, general guidelines

issued by the High Court cannot override the

direction(s) given by this Court on the judicial

side in the given case, which the concerned

Court(s) and all concerned are expected to comply

with without any demur in its letter and spirit,

unless relaxed by this Court. We say no more.

Be that as it may, we direct the concerned

Court(s) to ensure that the trial in the respective

case(s) is concluded not later than end of

December, 2020 and to submit compliance report in

the Registry of this Court within the same time.

Registry of this Court is directed to

forward a copy of this order through e-mail/on-line

to the concerned Court(s) for information and

necessary action and also to the Registrar General

of the High Court to be placed before the Chief

Justice of the High Court for issuing appropriate

clarification/directions to the subordinate

Court(s) to ensure compliance of the order(s) that

are being passed by this Court for expeditious

disposal of cases.

Miscellaneous applications are disposed of

in the above terms.

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