A PIL was filed in the Delhi High Court on Thursday seeking a direction to the Law Commission of India to prepare a comprehensive report on uniform judicial code in consultation with high courts to make judicial terms, abbreviations, norms phrases, court fee structure and case registration process uniform.
Petitioner advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay said he has found huge differences in judicial terms, phrases, abbreviations, court fee and case registration process used in the Delhi High Court and Allahabad High Court.
He said the Rajasthan High Court has two benches in Jaipur and Jodhpur and both the benches have several varied descriptions regarding case types (terminologies).
“Injury to citizens is extremely large because the court fees sought for similar matters and that of similar valuation in different states under the jurisdiction of different high courts are different.
“It must be noted that judicial equality is a matter of constitutional right, its differentiation based on the jurisdiction of courts violates the Right to Equality enshrined under Article 14 which states that ‘the state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or equal protection of the laws within India’ and Article 15 which states that ‘the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on the grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them’,” the plea said.
The public interest litigation (PIL) said unequal court fees in different states discriminate among citizens based on their place of birth and residence and it promotes “regionalism”, hence it is a clear violation of Articles 14 and 15.
Besides the Law Commission, as an alternative, the plea sought to direct the Union law ministry to take appropriate steps to prepare a comprehensive report on uniform judicial code in consultation with high courts.
In an alternative, the plea also sought to constitute an expert committee to prepare a comprehensive report on uniform judicial code in consultation with the high courts in order to make judicial terms, abbreviations, norms phrases, court fee structure and case registration process uniform.
“The courts are not only adopting different norms and procedures for case registration and using different judicial terms, phrases and abbreviations but also taking different court fees which is against the rule of law and right to justice,” the petition submitted.
