He said the Supreme Court should take a lead and that culture would trickle down to high courts and lower courts. Soon after taking over, Justice Lalit had emphasised that judicial discipline in terms of not granting unnecessary adjournments and time-bound hearing of the case must be maintained. In that case also, the court heard the matter and passed the order. 'Short date can only be passed over and not another date,' the bench said. As the lawyer pleaded for a short date, the bench said at the most it can grant pass over, means that the case would be taken up at the end of the board. On his first day in court, he scheduled an impressive show by listing over 900 petitions before 15 two-judge benches, including 60 PILs Similarly, a junior counsel sought adjournment on the ground that the senior counsel was not available but the CJI-led bench insisted that he should himself argue the case. With less than 100 days' tenure, India’s 49th Chief Justice has his hands full. A bench of CJI UU Lalit, Justices S Ravindra Bhat and JB Pardiwala turned down repeated pleas of a senior advocate who submitted that the matter be heard on Tuesday. The same approach is being adopted by other benches.

The change in approach in the apex court is discernible after CJI UU Lalit took over last month and the bench headed by him is setting an example by turning down adjournment pleas and persuading the junior counsel or advocate-on-record to argue the case in the absence of arguing counsel.

Shedding its usual practice of adopting a liberal approach, especially with regard to senior lawyers who are unable to appear on many occasions due to engagements in other cases, the Supreme Court on Monday made it clear that hearings would not be deferred as it asked a senior advocate not to embarrass the bench by asking for adjournment. NEW DELHI: 'Tarikh Pe Tarikh' may well become a thing of the past as the Supreme Court gets strict with lawyers seeking adjournments and such pleas, even from senior lawyers, are now being denied.

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