Roll On Friday
A judge is freeing up India’s overburdened courts with a bold new initiative: postponing trivial cases until the claimants die of old age.
Bombay High Court Justice Jittandra Jain became so annoyed with 89-year old Tarinibahen Desai that he ordered the next hearing in her case to take place no sooner than 2046.
Desai, along with her 57-year-old co-claimant, sued the Shyam Cooperative Housing Society in 2016 when the pair were expelled during an AGM.
The two women are seeking £150k for defamation and mental harassment, but repeatedly failed to submit the necessary documents with the court despite being given multiple extensions of time.
Taking pity on the pair in 2019, one judge said that “considering the fact that plaintiffs are two ladies of 83 years and 50 years, respectively, purely by way of indulgence, I am granting one more opportunity to plaintiffs to comply with the directions”.
But in 2025 no-one turned up for the scheduled hearing, and judicial patience had apparently run out by the time Jain addressed the matter on Tuesday.
Jain said the dispute was an “ego fight” between parties “at their fag end of their life”, and that Desai’s claim “clogs the system, which prevents the Court from taking up the matters which really requires more priority”.
According to the judge, an apology from the Housing Society would have been sufficient to resolve the dispute, but Desai, “who is close to 90 years old, still insist to pursue the suit for defamation”.
His solution is to make her wait until she’s at least 109: “I do not wish to state anything further except that this matter should not be taken up for the next 20 years”, Jain stated in his order.
“List this matter after 2046. At any cost, this matter should not be given priority on the ground that the petitioners are senior citizens or super senior citizens. It is expressly made clear that this matter will not be taken up for hearing before 2046.”
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