The Bombay High Court on May 7 said rules framed for granting permission to litigants to argue their matters personally are regulatory in nature and not contrary to the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and expression and equality before law.
A division bench of Justices A.S. Chandurkar and Jitendra Jain dismissed a petition filed by a former judicial officer challenging a September 2015 notification — Rules for Presentation and Conduct of Proceedings in-Person by Parties. The court said the rules are not prohibitive in nature so as to offend provisions of the Article 14 (equality before law) and 19(1)(A) (freedom of speech and expression) of the Constitution of India.
“The rules are merely regulatory in nature and have been framed to enable presentation and conduct of proceedings by a party-in-person smoothly to facilitate the administration of justice,” the Bombay HC said.
