Karnataka High Court imposes additional rider to allow litigants to argue their cases in person without assistance of advocate
A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice K.V. Aravind, issued the direction while dismissing a PIL petition filed in 2022 by 69-year-old Mohamed Ikbal of Bengaluru. The petitioner, who is an advocate, social worker, and also administrator of a masjid, had filed and argued in person his plea related to alleged encroachment of a Muslim burial ground situated at Rudrapatna of Arkalgud taluk in Hassan district.
The Bench said that the petition contains wayward pleadings made by the 'party-in-person' [a person, who intends to plead, appear and argue his or her own case before the High Court, not through an advocate] while pointing out that the pleadings contain long statements and facts, which are extra in nature not properly related to the controversy, and moreover, the pleadings were made cumbersome to cull out the crux of the issue.
'This phenomenon of indisciplined, irrelevant, unnecessary, and long unrelated pleadings which are even otherwise, hardly up to the mark are seen in common whenever party-in-person appears either as petitioner or respondent and conducts the matter,' the Bench noted.
Therefore, the Bench said, it is desirable that while assessing the competency to appear as party-in-person by the committee set up under the High Court of Karnataka (Conduct of Proceedings by Party-In-Person) Rules, 2018 and before issuing Form-16 certifying party-in-person to be competent to appear before the court, their capacity to plead and draft the case properly as per the law of pleadings, should also be applied as one of the criteria.
'The party-in-persons, who are not able to plead properly in their petition and draft their pleadings should not be granted the certificate to argue in the court in-person,' the Bench ordered.
The assessing of the capacity to plead and draft the case properly would be a criteria in addition to other conditions, whether a party-in-person would be able to give necessary assistance to the court for disposal of the matter, which is already laid down in the 2018 Rules.
However, the Rules exempt the need for securing certificate from the committee in cases of applications for bail, temporary/transit bail, parole, furlough and habeas corpus petitions. Apart from this exemption, the Benches have the discretion to allow a party to any proceedings to appear in-person sans obtaining certificate as per the Rules.
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