The High Court was on winter vacation for more than a week till Tuesday. And when it resumed regular work on Wednesday, the filing section of High Court got busy receiving the case papers, numbering them and performing basic scrutiny. The staff also worked overtime till 6.30 pm to manage the higher workload, due to the rush.

On the HC’s first working day last year (January 2, 2006), the number of cases filed was 638, while on January 2, 2007,  619 cases were filed. Compared to these figures, 2008 marked a record high - with 781 cases being filed.
The categories with most number of filings were Miscellaneous First Appeals, mainly involving accident claims appeals - 315 cases, Writ Petition - 177 cases, and Regular Second Appeals in civil matters - 79 cases.

The High Court was on vacation from December 24 till January 1. The filing section is open for limited hours during the vacation period, and urgent matters are given preference. Some senior advocates also choose to stay away from court work during vacations. January 1 was a holiday and when the HC reopened on Wednesday, a huge chunk of cases poured in.

Of these, many cases were those that had to be filed urgently, lest would be barred by Limitation. Limitation period is prescribed for filing cases in different categories - and if filed beyond that period, separate applications have to be filed seeking condonation of delay by giving genuine reasons.

There could be other factors for the first day rush - some advocates prefer to file cases on the first day of the year, a few like to try single digit and double digit numbers that are rare in common categories of cases; and a few clients themselves insist on not filing their case while the year ends, and want to wait for new year’s luck.
As many as 61,373 cases were filed before HC during the entire year 2007. However, the filing pattern is not uniform everyday. Raghu, an advocate’s clerk says: “Usually, 100 to 300 cases are filed everyday. But, there are days when suddenly filings reach upto 1000 cases.”