The Supreme Court has directed the registry to cease referring to trial courts as subordinate courts. The Supreme Court stated that even the record of trial courts should not be referred to as “lower court record”.
A panel of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ljjal Bhuyan issued the ruling while hearing a plea filed by two people contesting the Alahabad High Court verdict that dismissed their appeal against the conviction and life sentence imposed to them in a murder case in 1981.
“It will be appropriate if the regisny of this court stops referring to the trial courts as lower courts. Even the record of the trial court should not be referred to as lower court record (LCR). Instead, it should be referred as the trial court record. The registrar (judicial) to take a note of this order,” the bench stated in its order passed on February 8.
Supreme Court’s direction on the trial court’s case
The top court directed its registry to request a soft copy of the case’s trial court record and scheduled a hearing on August 6.
The two petitioners appealed the high court’s October 2018 judgement, which denied their appeals and ordered them to surrender to complete the remaining term.
They had petitioned the high court to overturn a trial court ruling that had found them guilty and sentenced them to life in prison.