The Kerela HC in, V.SAFARULLAH v. GRACY JOSEPHINE LAMBIE, issued an Office Memorandum wherein they mentioned the procedure to be followed by a subordinate court in case records go missing. This memorandum was issued in the wake of an increasing number of cases relating to ‘missing of records.’
The Petitioner is a co-owner of a property that originally belonged to Andrew Rodger Lambie. The erstwhile owner had by an unregistered Will bequeathed the property in favor of his wife - the respondent. The respondent on the death of their husband filed OP before the court seeking letters of administration with Will. The respondent sold the property to the petitioner's predecessors in interest. Now, the property has vested on the petitioner and his siblings, who are desirous of constructing a building in the property. They approached a Bank for financial assistance, but the bank asked for a copy of the will. The petitioner approached the District Court but the Will was missing.
Now, the Will has been misplaced while it was in the custody of the court. The court stated that the number of such cases has been increasing. Thus they issued an office memorandum on the very same issue.
The following directions were made while stating that repeated instances of such cases have led to delay of injustice:-
- The judicial officer shall ensure that case records are properly maintained in their courts. Action should be taken if there is a lack of space to keep the files etc.
- The subordinate court shall promptly report the missing record to the HC and failure to do so would invite serious consequences
- Before reporting such missing, a thorough search should be conducted and should not be done in a casual manner as there have been instances in the past whereby after an order was issued by HC to relook, the record was found. The judicial officers shall bear in mind that the missing records are to be necessarily traced out and reconstruction of those records shall be resorted to only as of the last resort
- When the records are irrecoverably lost then it must be reported to HC stating all the steps that were taken to find them and possibilities of reconstruction. The Courts shall secure the copies of such documents at the stage of reporting the matter to the High Court and to Inform the same so that they can proceed with the matter as and when instructions are received from the High Court
- The subordinate court shall include all necessary details of the missing documents and the case while reporting the matter to the High Court
- Disciplinary proceedings should take place against the delinquent employee in a time-bound manner and the conclusion should be sent to HC
- The judicial officer shall issue necessary directions to the employees to ensure that instances of missing records are not repeated.
Violation of any of the directions, the HC stated, would be taken seriously.
On the matter of the aforementioned issue, the HC directed the district court to take the necessary steps, as contemplated in the Official Memorandum, and pass appropriate orders.
Case Details
OP(C). No.1428 OF 2020
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