The courtroom was already full before the judge took the bench. An elderly farmer sat quietly with a faded cloth bag containing documents from a land dispute that had remained unresolved for nearly two decades. Beside him, a widow waited anxiously for her maintenance case, while a young businessman glanced repeatedly at his watch, hoping to return to work before losing another day’s income. Near the entrance stood a witness who had travelled overnight after receiving a court summons weeks earlier. When their cases were finally called, they all heard the same word. “Adjourned.”

For the court, it was another date on the cause list. For those waiting inside the courtroom, it meant another journey, another expense, another month of uncertainty, and another reminder that justice is measured not only by the judgments courts deliver but also by the time they take to deliver them.

Most people see an adjournment as a routine procedural order. Lawyers expect them, judges occasionally have little choice but to grant them, and court staff record them as part of the daily business of litigation. Yet outside the legal profession, few realise how profoundly a single postponement can affect ordinary lives. Behind every adjourned case lies a family waiting for certainty, a business waiting for resolution, or a victim waiting for closure.

To be fair, not every adjournment is unnecessary. Courts cannot sacrifice fairness for speed. A witness may fall ill, an investigating officer may fail to........

© The Friday Times