Jaya Raveendran vs C.C. Rohini

C.S.Dias, J

The petitioner desires to get O.S.No.66/2022 on the file of the Court of the Munsiff, Thrissur, to be disposed of out of turn.

The petitioner has averred in the original petition that she is the first plaintiff in the suit, which is filed against the first respondent, for a decree of permanent prohibitory injunction, to restrain the first respondent from transacting on the strength of the Will bearing No.26/2021 executed by the late husband of the petitioner, and for other consequential reliefs.

The petitioner has averred in the original petition that even though the first respondent has entered appearance in the suit, she has till date not filed the written statement. She is deliberately protracting the determination of the suit. She has filed another suit as O.S. No.73/2022 before the same court against the petitioner and the respondents 2 and 3. The petitioner is aged 62 years. If the suit is not disposed of within a time frame, it would cause severe prejudice to the petitioner. Hence the original petition.

Heard;Sri.P.Mohandas, the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner on admission.

The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, lays down the procedure to be followed by civil courts, right from the date of institution of a suit till the execution of the decree.

It is trite, the supervisory jurisdiction of this Court under Article 227 of the Constitution of India is to be exercised sparingly and in appropriate cases. The power under this Article casts a duty on this Court to keep subordinate Courts and Tribunals within their bounds of authority and see that they discharge their functions as per the mandate prescribed under law. But, that does not mean that this Court is to inter-meddle with the proceedings before the subordinate courts on the mere asking of a party, that too to dispose of a proceeding, out of turn, unsettling the cases targeted for disposal.

On going through the pleadings and materials on record, it is seen that the suit is filed only on 12.1.2022. Admittedly, the first respondent has not even filed written statement. The suit is only at the nascent stage.

I do not find any justifiable ground or reason made out in the original petition to exercise the power of superintendence of this Court under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, to issue a direction as sought for in the original petition. I am of the view that it is not for this court to dictate the time period within which the suit is to be disposed of because of the huge pendency of older suits and applications before the court below. Hence, this Court leaves it to the absolute discretion and wisdom of the court below to decide whether the suit is to be disposed of in precedence to older pending matters.

The original petition is dismissed with the above observation.