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Orders pronounced by a Judge in open court should be immediately made available to the parties: High Court of Delhi

There cannot be any quarrel with the proposition that orders pronounced by a Judge in open court should be immediately made available to the parties so that the party aggrieved with the said order may invoke legal remedies against the said order as held by the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi through a learned bench of Hon’ble Mr. Justice Amit Bansal in the case of Ram Charan Aggarwal Vs Prem Lata & Anr [CM(M) 640/2021 & CM No.33116/2021 (stay)].

The brief facts of the case are that on 22nd September, 2021, notice was issued in the present petition on the submission of the petitioner that despite the fact that the website of the District Court shows that the present leave to defend application has been dismissed; the judgment was not made available. The operation of the impugned judgment was stayed only on account of its non-availability.

The present petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India has impugned the order dated 16th September, 2021 passed by the Rent Controller, Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi in RC ARC 479653/2016 on the ground that the printout from the website of the Court shows that the leave to defend application filed by the petitioner in respect of the eviction petition filed under Section 14(1)(e) of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 has been dismissed, however, the judgment had not been made available.

Learned senior counsel, Mr. Darpan Wadhwa, appearing on behalf of the petitioner has relied upon the order the Supreme Court in the case of Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. vs. Zaixhu XIE & Ors to contend that the judgment pronounced in open court should be made available on the same date or immediately thereafter.

Learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents, Mr. Ashish Dholakia, contended that the said judgment was pronounced in open court on 16th September, 2021 and merely because the same was uploaded few days later would not be a ground for the petitioner to file the present petition on the ground that the judgment was not in existence, as has been stated in the present petition.

After hearing both the parties, the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi opined that “However, the judgment was uploaded on 15th May, 2020 after 9½ months. There cannot be any quarrel with the proposition that orders pronounced by a Judge in open court should be immediately made available to the parties so that the party aggrieved with the said order may invoke legal remedies against the said order. In the present case, admittedly the judgment was pronounced in open court on 16th September, 2021 and leave to defend application filed on behalf of the petitioner was dismissed. The certified copy of the said judgment was made available on 22nd September, 2021. Though there may have been some delay in making the judgment available, the magnitude of the delay was not such so as to be covered within the ambit of the directions of the Supreme Court in Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd.”

Click here to read the Judgment

Judgment Reviewed by – Aryan Bajaj

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