Plea in Supreme Court seeks uniform judicial code across country

New Delhi: A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the high courts to take appropriate steps to adopt a uniform procedure for case registration and to use common judicial terms, phrases and abbreviations.

The plea, filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, has also sought directions to the Law Commission to prepare a report in consultation with the high courts to ensure uniformity in judicial terms, phrases, abbreviations, case registration process and court fee. "The terminology used by different High Courts for different types of cases is not uniform.

This non-uniformity causes inconvenience not just to the general public but, in many cases, to the advocates and the authorities as well. "Not just the terms used by them to refer to the same types of cases are different but even the abbreviations used to refer to these terms are different in case the same term is used. It is inexplicable as to why there is a difference in terminologies, procedure, court fees etc., within courts when all are governed by the same laws," said the plea filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey.

It said not only are the high courts adopting different norms and procedures for case registration and using different judicial terms, phrases and abbreviations but are also charging different fees, which is against the rule of law and the right to justice. The petition stated that all 25 high courts across the country have different usage of phrases when it comes to identifying different cases.