New Delhi, Jul 30 (DHNS): The Supreme Court on Friday invoked Bhagwad Gita’s words “Awake! Arise! Oh Partha” to provide guidance to trial courts on checking the “virus of adjournments”.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R F Nariman imposed Rs 50,000 cost on petitioner Gayathri, after noting her “maladroit efforts to abuse the process of court” for seeking adjournments on one ground or another in a civil suit for possession and damages.

The apex court noted that the petitioner sought adjournment in the matter on grounds like ‘senior counsel’s mother was unwell’ or ‘busy in the marriage ceremony of a relative’.

“In the case at hand, it can indubitably be stated that the defendant-petitioner has acted in a manner to cause colossal insult to justice and to the concept of speedy disposal of civil litigation. We are constrained to say the virus of seeking adjournment has to be controlled. The saying of Gita ‘Awake! Arise! Oh Partha’ is apt here to be stated for guidance of trial courts,” the bench said.

The court dismissed the petition filed by Gayathri with the direction to pay Rs 50,000 cost within eight weeks to the Karnataka’s State Legal Services Authority.

She had challenged the Karnataka High Court’s order that had refused to allow her plea against Rs 1,000 cost slapped by the trial court after declining her request for adjournment for cross examination of a witness.

The bench called the marathon interlocutory applications filed by her during the proceedings before the trial court to seek adjournments as “wholly reprehensible”. “The law does not countenance it and, if we permit ourselves to say so, the professional ethics decry such practice. It is because such acts are against the majesty of law,” the bench said.