A lawyer has moved the Supreme Court seeking direction to its Secretary General and registrar/officers "not to give preferences to cases filed by influential lawyers/petitioners" and stop discrimination against ordinary lawyers.
Lawyer Reepak Kansal, in the plea, claimed that there is no mechanism to address complaints against erring officers of the registry who favour some law firms/advocates for reasons best known to them. "There are many petitioners/lawyers have been suffering by unequal treatment by the registry as the cases filed by some law firms/influential lawyers are immediately listed by registry ignoring the cases of ordinary petitioners/ lawyers," said the plea.
The plea is likely to come up for hearing on June 18.
Kansal contended, in the plea, that there is violation of fundamental rights of litigants/ordinary lawyers/members of SCBA as guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution.
"No equal treatment is given to ordinary petitioners/lawyer by the registry of this court.
"There is no procedure followed by the registry i.e. filing application for urgent hearing or letter etc which was necessary for the urgent listing of the cases during national lockdown," the plea argued.
The lawyer contended that is impossible for the litigants to pay more court fee or printing charges as illegally demanded by registry. "There is no system to return the excess court fee/charges taken by registry. The Supreme Court Bar Association has also got various complaints against the malfunctioning of registry therefore, a Circular on May 29 was issued by SCBA in this regard," argued the plea.
The lawyer has urged the apex court to issue a direction to the Secretary General and others to give equal treatment to the cases filed by ordinary lawyers/petitioners. It also sought direction to the officials concerned not to point out unnecessary defects in cases of ordinary advocates/petitioners and refund the excess court fee and other charges.
( With inputs from IANS )