The reason? An acute shortage of judges in the High Court is yet to be resolved. The number of new cases lined up for admission for almost all the benches have shot up to 400-500, and these are notwithstanding the already admitted matters that are yet to be disposed off. Nobody is willing to wager when even those cases which are marked for expeditious hearings will be finally heard.

In fact, taking cognisance of this and the pressing shortage of time, sitting high court judges themselves are issuing stern rules to be able to get more time to hear matters. For instance, the division bench of Justice M B Ghodeswar and Justice B N Srikrishna has directed advocates should not jump the queue and that they cannot mention admission matters for circulation during the period allowed at 2.45 pm,unless it is extremely urgent. Advocates have been advised to get their petitions numbered by the court offices, so it adds to the board and is heard whenever it comes up.

The only hitch is the admission board for this bench, which hears original side (pertaining to the city) matters has already crossed 400. It is anybody's guess when the matter might actually be heard.

At the division bench of Justice A V Sawant and Justice R J Kochar, which hears appellate side matters (pertaining to outside Mumbai), the admission board is already so tight that dates for circulation are being given in September and October. ``How can one wait for so long for the preliminary hearing of the matter?'' complains one advocate. This advocate had a client who had been given a 15 day notice for attachment of property. The last date for the notice is July 26th. However when he sought to challenge the notice, he was allowed circulation only after August.

The problem is compounded during these months of June/July, the admissionseason for colleges and schools. When litigations challenging admissions and transfers and caste certificate verifications and scrutinies flood the high court. This is also the time for most elections to cooperative bodies and the resultant need for intervention. Since these are pressing and urgent matters, the court takes them on priority. The others have no alternative, but to wait.

The result is that even benches that are hearing matters for final disposal, like the bench of Justice D G Deshpande, are taking up pre-1990 cases.

The Bombay High Court at present is reportedly facing a shortage of 21 judges though it has a strength of 60. While there are 25 judges in the Bombay bench, the high court benches at Aurangabad and Nagpur are worse off, with only four judges in Nagpur and Aurangabad, though the strengths are of that of 12 and 11 judges respectively. The city today lacks an exclusive bench for first appeal matters, a bench for hearing family court cases as well as an LPA (latest patent appeal)bench. In fact,advocates feel that even if all appointments to the high court were made, it would still be inadequate.

The only hope for the legal circles is the recent proclamation of the Union Law minister Ram Jethmalani that he would work towards filling the vacancies in various high courts.

But till such time it will be the petitioner who pays. Like polio stricken Vijay Gupte, who walks on his hands, has a wife and a six month old daughter to feed and who has lost his stall to somebody smarter than him. His case has been on since 1996. The judiciary, it would seem is not entirely oblivious to the petitioners' plaint.

``My client is losing US $ 2000 per day,'' a counsel moved the bench of Justice Srikrishna for expeditious hearing the other day. While refusing it, Justice Srikrishna remarked, ``There are people who are not able to get their meal for one day, and we cannot do anything about them''.