Report No. 14

Roznama

The Court of The Civil Judge of in The District of

Dates on which the suit or miscellaneous matter comes before the Court for any proceeding	No. of Exhibit.	Suit No....of 19 wd. Plaintiff vs. wd. Defendant Claim Rs.	Date to which the suit is adjourned
1	2	3	4
2nd June, 1958		Before Shri A. B., Civil Judge.
	1	Plaint presented by Plaintiff's Vakil Shri C. D. (or "plain­tiff" or "plaintiff's Mukhtyar" as the case may be) examined and registered.
	2	Plaintiff's Vakilapatra.
	3	Plaintiff's list of document produced and others to be produced, together with one promissory note produced.
		Case adjourned for settlement of issues to	2nd July, 1958.
		.............(Sd.)
4th June, 1958	4	Summons to defendant
		(Sd.)
2nd July, 1958		Vakil Shri E. F. appears for the defendant and applies under Order XI, rule 12, for an order directing the plaintiff to make discovery on oath of documents in his possession or power relating to the matter in suit. The plaintiff's vakil Shri C. D. is present in Court.
	5	Defendant's Vakilpatra.
	6	Defendant's application to the above effect.
	7	Order directing plaintiff to make affidavit as to documents within 10 days from the date of the order.
		(S.d.)

17. In addition to the Roznama all Judges including District and Sessions Judges have also to keep memoranda books relating to the work pending before them from day to day and showing the progress of each proceeding on a particular date in certain prescribed forms. These books show at a glance the daily cause list of the Judge and also show what progress was made in each proceeding on any given day.

18. The High Court has not laid down any time limit for the delivery of judgments either in civil or in criminal matters, but the rules provide that judgments should be promptly written and delivered. We would suggest the framing of such a rule, and the submission of returns to ensure compliance with it on the lines suggested by us in the chapter on the Supervision of Subordinate Courts.

19. The efficiency of the subordinate judicial officers is judged by the District Judge and the High Court. The High Court has prescribed certain forms of returns for submission to the higher authorities from month to month. The Civil Judges have to submit returns of original civil work to the District Judge under whose jurisdiction they are stationed not later than the 5th of every month. The District Judge sends to the High Court not later than the 15th of every month a general return of original civil work for all the courts in the district and also a return of appellate civil work turned out during the previous month.

In addition to the monthly returns all Civil Judges are required to submit to the District Judge quarterly returns of cases pending in their courts in which proceedings have been stayed by order of a superior court or cases in which there are no orders of stay of proceedings but the records have been called for in revision against interlocutory orders. District Judges have to submit to the High Court by the 15th April and 15th October of every year a statement of such cases from their districts not being special jurisdiction cases in Courts of Civil Judges, Senior Division pending decision or orders in the High Court and the Civil Judges, Senior Division are also required to submit by the same dates a similar statement in respect of special jurisdiction suits.

The object of these returns is obviously to draw the attention of the High Court to proceedings which have been stayed under orders of that Court so that they may be expedited. The aforementioned returns are intended to give a proper idea to the District Judge and to the High Court regarding the adequacy or otherwise of the disposals of the officers serving under them. These returns are scrutinised by the High Court which keeps a watch over the position of the file and over the individual disposal of different Judges. If the disposals of a particular officer are low, he is given a warning, if they are adequate no action is taken and if the disposals are high and show that the officer has worked hard, approbation is expressed of the work put in by him.

By these methods the High Court keeps the subordinate courts alert. The District Judges keep confidential notes about the quality of judgments of Civil Judges which come up before them in appeal and on the basis of such notes they are required to submit annual confidential reports. The High Court Judges also record confidential memoranda regarding the quality of judgments coming up before them at the time of the disposal of appeals.

20. As regards superintendence and control, the subordinate courts are inspected by the District Judges who also examine the monthly returns submitted by the Civil Judges and Magistrates. Under section 9 of the Bombay Civil Courts Act, 1869, the District Judge has general control over all civil courts in his district and over their establishments and in exercise of that control the District Judges are expected to inspect or cause to be inspected by their Assistant Judges every court subordinate to them not less than once in two years.

21. The rules contain detailed instructions as to the points to be noted at the time of these inspections. The report to be submitted by the District Judge to the High Court after the inspection of a court is generally in the following form:-

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