Divisional Bench of Justice SJ Kathawalla and Justice SP Tavade of the Bombay High Court sat for over 12 hours and heard 80 cases
A divisional bench of the Bombay High Court comprising of Justice SJ Kathawalla and Justice SP Tavade, started the court hearing from 10:45 AM to 11:45 PM on Wednesday, amounting to more than 12 hours.
The bench heard eighty [80] cases including urgent matters concerning the release of prisoners on parole and bail, child custody matters, matters pertaining to the eviction or demolition of structures, Intellectual Property related cases, termination of pregnancy, and few public interests litigation petitions on COVID issues.
The bench also passed orders in the bail applications filed by Bhima Koregaon accused Father Stan Swamy and Hany Babu.
The bench didn’t even rise for lunch and heard cases non-stop like a marathon, and stopped at last when the board was completed.
The last matter the bench was hearing was a high-profile matter. It was a petition filed by the Maharashtra Government alleging the certain portions of the FIR [First Information Report] registered by the CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] against Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, were done with an intent to destabilize the ShivSena-Congress-NCP Government in the state.
While hearing the last matter, the bench also finalized the board for today. The judges took short breaks to stretch their legs twice during the day when there were internet glitches.
After a marathon hearing of over 12 and half hours, Justice Kathawalla could be heard saying "band karo" before the video conferencing was disconnected.
This is not the first time, that Justice SJ Kathawalla sat for so long, to hear all the cases on the board. In 2018 a day before vacation, to clear the backlogs Justice SJ Kathawalla sat till 3:30 AM to hear cases. At that time Justice Kathawalla sat for over 16 hours during the hearing of the court.