IMPORTANT POINT
Adjournments in court proceedings must be justified to prevent delays in justice; costs can be imposed for unnecessary adjournments.

ORDER :

(Girish Kathpalia, J.)

W.P.(C) 16502/2024 & CM APPL. 69731/2024 (stay) & CM APPL. 69732/2024 (exemption)

“While it's important to maintain a friendly and cooperative atmosphere with the members of the Bar, this should not be misused as a pretext for frequent adjournment requests. A word of caution to the learned members of the Bar, at this juncture, would also be necessary because of they being considered as another wheel of the chariot of dispensation of justice. They should be circumspect in seeking adjournments, that too in old matters or matters which have been pending for decades and desist from making request or prayer for grant of adjournments for any reason whatsoever and should not take the goodness of the presiding officer as his/her weakness.”

{Yashpal Jain vs. Sushila Devi & Ors., 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1377}

1. The present writ action assails order dated 05.11.2024 of the Industrial Tribunal, whereby for reasons detailed in the order, cost of Rs. 20,000/- was imposed on the petitioner management. It would be apposite to commence the present order by extracting the entire impugned order, which is as follows:

“On the first call Sh. Anant Sharma, Ld. AR for management appeared through VC and sought a pass-over till12:00 noon. Matter was pass over for 11:15 AM.

On second call, Sh. Vinod Kumar and Sh. Sparsh Jhanb both Ld. ARs for management appeared through VC and sought further pass over of the matter on the ground that their one matter is pending before Hon'ble Ms. Justice Rekha Palli, Delhi High Court.

Pass over of the matter more than once in favour of the same party is not possible. Hence, further passover is declined. WW-4 and WW-5 examined-in-chief. It is 12:05 PM now. Opportunity to crossexamine WW-4 and WW-5 is given to Sh. Sparsh Jhanb, Ld. AR for management appearing through VC at this stage.

At this stage, adjournment sought by Sh. Sh. Sparsh Jhanb, Ld. AR for management. As per CPC, busyness of a counsel in some other Court is no ground for adjournment.

Today itself three ARs for management have appeared through VC. There is no reason why one of them could not appear before this Court. The present matter is one of the oldest 20 matters pending in my court regarding which there are directions from the Hon'ble High Court for early disposal. Keeping in view the conduct of the management in the present case, no ground for adjournment is made of.

However, in the interest of justice, adjournment is allowed subject to a cost of Rs. 20,000/- with the further condition that the management shall have only one opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses, subject also to the availability of the witnesses.

Half of the cost shall be deposited with DLSA and the remaining shall be paid to both the witnesses equally.

Put up for showing deposit of cost, payment of cost and cross-examination of WW-4 and WW-5 and RWE on 07.11.2024.

At this stage, date is changed to 08.11.2024 on the request of Ld. AR for management.”

2. At the outset, learned counsel for petitioner was asked as to whether he had satisfied himself about merits of this writ petition before filing the same; and he affirmed this.

3. Learned counsel for petitioner contends that the impugned order is not sustainable in the eyes of law because he had only sought a pass-over, so imposition of costs was completely unjustified. Learned counsel for petitioner also contends that he never took any adjournment before the trial court. Most significantly, learned counsel for petitioner also submits that on five dates, the learned judicial officers presiding over the Industrial Tribunal were on leave, and that ought to have been kept in mind while passing the impugned order. In reference to the date of 08.11.2024 (for which the matter was posted vide the impugned order), on being asked about the proceedings held on that day, learned counsel for petitioner discloses that on 08.11.2024 the petitioner filed an application for amendment of issues in this industrial dispute pendin