Listing Nine Matters in One Working Day
You assist the Bench clerk of a Civil Judge's court. Eight matters are to be listed tomorrow. The court sits from 10:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. The estimated durations are: a part-heard suit, 75 minutes; an application for injunction where status quo has to be continued, 20 minutes; a suit with an outstation witness, 45 minutes; a matter in which the senior advocate is appearing, 30 minutes; three consent matters, 5 minutes each; pronouncement of judgment, 20 minutes; a further hearing, 45 minutes; and a contested evidence matter, 55 minutes. The constraints are these: the part-heard suit must be taken up first; the status quo application must be heard before noon; the outstation witness must be released by 1:00 p.m. to catch a 3:00 p.m. train; the senior advocate is available only after 2:30 p.m.; and one advocate appears in the further hearing and in one of the consent matters and is in another court until 12:30 p.m. The judgment is ordinarily pronounced before lunch.
1. Construct a listing order with clock timings that satisfies every constraint, and state the slack.
Read the worked answer
Total court time available is 165 minutes before lunch and 165 minutes after, that is 330 minutes. Total listing time is 75 + 20 + 45 + 30 + 15 + 20 + 45 + 55 = 305 minutes, leaving 25 minutes of slack.
- 10:30–11:45 Part-heard suit (75) - first, as required.
- 11:45–12:05 Status quo application (20) - finishes before noon.
- 12:05–12:50 Outstation witness suit (45) - witness released well before 1:00 p.m.
- 12:50–1:10 Judgment pronouncement (20) - before lunch, as is the practice.
- 1:15–2:00 Lunch. (5 minutes of slack here.)
- 2:00–2:45 Further hearing (45) - the advocate was free from 12:30 p.m., so this is safe.
- 2:45–3:15 Senior advocate matter (30) - after 2:30 p.m.
- 3:15–3:30 Three consent matters (5 each).
- 3:30–4:25 Contested evidence (55).
Court rises at 4:25 p.m., leaving 20 minutes spare at the end and 5 minutes before lunch. Nothing is placed on the strength of an assumption about counsel's convenience without a margin.
2. You learn that one of the three 'consent' matters is in fact contested. What is the consequence and how do you accommodate it?
Read the worked answer
A contested matter is not a 5-minute item, and the listing mistake cannot be cured by persuading parties to record consent that does not exist. If consent is recorded without the other side's concurrence, any order passed on it is vulnerable, and the Bench clerk who prepared the list will be asked why.
The practical course:
- Verify the position at the morning call and inform the court at once, so that the item can be re-classified on the cause list itself rather than on a slip of paper.
- Quantify the gap. Only 25 minutes of slack exists. A simple contested application may fit into it - move the three consent items to the end and use the 25 minutes for the contested matter, but only if it can genuinely be argued in that time.
- Adjourn to a fixed date rather than squeeze. If pleadings are complete and the matter needs 30 minutes or more, the honest option is to adjourn it to a named date with reasons recorded, and to inform the parties in open court.
- Protect the fixed obligations. The witness and the status quo application must not be disturbed to make room; the evidence matter may be shortened or part-heard, which is the least harmful sacrifice.
3. At 12:40 p.m. an urgent application for interim injunction is mentioned for the day. How do you list it?
Read the worked answer
Mentioning is not listing, and an urgent application is not refused because the list is full - it is placed before the court for orders on how to accommodate it.
- Mention it before the Bench at the first opportunity, even during another item, with the case number, the nature of urgency and the time needed.
- Apply priority. Urgent interim relief outranks convenience items. The three consent matters, 15 minutes in all, are the first to be sacrificed because they are adjournable by consent and lose nothing by going to another day.
- Use the slack honestly. If the court takes the urgent application in the 20 minutes after 4:25 p.m., the consent matters can be moved there and only the evidence matter need be adjourned.
- Do not sacrifice the protected items. The witness who must catch a train and the status quo order already listed cannot be shifted for a fresh item.
- Record it. Endorse the mention on the order sheet, note the time and the direction given, and carry the change to the cause list and the notice board so that the parties who are affected know exactly where their matter now stands.