Typical day in Bombay High Court

Описание: Can you describe a typical day in Bombay High Court?

This question was asked by a friend of mine to me recently. I thought I should describe what happens in a High Court including smaller details.

The Bombay High Court timing is 10.30 am- 4.30 pm.
The judges are usually escorted by a couple of guards to the bench. Before they take a seat, they bow down and the advocates reciprocate the same, out of respect.

•Mentioning: Usually mentioning takes place as soon as judges are seated. ‘Mentioning’ is process of explaining the urgency of a case to the judge and getting the case listed so it can be heard as soon as possible.

For example, house is going to demolished or there’s a tax penalty notice which imposes fine every day till payment of amount.

For mentioning, either there can be a queue for advocates or advocates could be standing randomly and mentioning matters to the judge. This process varies from one court to another.

•Supplementary board:
Supplementary board matters are the list of cases that were ‘mentioned’ and hence have come up on supplementary board. Usually, these matters have an urgency.

The supplementary board matters start from 900 series. It can be numbered as 901,902, etc. There can be total of 10 supplementary board matters (till serial 910) or can go up-to serial 945, it depends on the court and judge.

•Main board:
Main board matters are regular cases listed from serial no. 1,2,3, etc. It can go up to 50 or 100 or even 200 depending on the judge and the court.

•Part-heard or fixed matters:

It may so happen that there is a part heard matter (those matters which were partly heard, not fully heard yet i.e. case not yet concluded) or if there’s a fixed matter (the court fixes a date for important matters or for cases that can affect public in general. For example, new amendment made in section 148 of Income-tax Act, and a writ petition challenges the constitutionality of the amendment. Thousands of cases will be tagged along).

If there’s a part heard matter or say a fixed matter at 12.30 pm or 2.30 pm, it’s most likely the case will go on for a while. You can check your serial no. and decide accordingly.

Before calling it a day, the judge gets up from the bench bows down once again which is reciprocated by the advocates and the guards escort them out. This is what a typical day in the Bombay High Court looks like.

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