Numerous civil cases filed by moneyed parties burden court: HC

Delhi High Court has expressed concern over growing number of civil cases filed here by parties having "money power" burdening the court with civil suits for which original jurisdiction should have been with the district courts.

"It should be seriously considered why the original jurisdiction should not only be with district courts and the high court should be spared to deal with the appeals, writs and related works," Justice S N Dhingra of the HC said.
    
In this direction, the court suggested the government for an amendment in the Copy Right Act to remove the anomaly so that the big companies would not take advantage of it.

"One cannot be given liberty to choose a court of his liking because of his money power," was the observation of justice Dhingra who expressed displeasure with the global software giant --Microsoft Corporation-- for filling four civil suits here against some Indian companies, located in various places, for using its pirated software.
    
"Today, the situation is that even the criminal appeals of those who are in jail cannot be heard and disposed of within a reasonable time because enough judges cannot be put for hearing criminal appeals while High Courts have been burderned themselves with the original jurisdiction where the should be vested with District Courts," the court said.

Hearing the petitions of Microsoft, the court, in a recent order, has appointed a commissioner to probe into an allegation leveled by the plaintiff against four Indian companies located in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Mumbai and fixed January 18, 2010 as the next date of hearing of the case.
   
It has directed the multinational company to deposit Rs 2 lakh each as security for hearing the four separate suits here.

Asking the global information technology giant to deposit the amount with the High Court Registrar General's office, Justice Dhingra said the amount will be paid to the private companies in case the suit is found speculative and the allegations made by the plaintiff were found false.