The Madras High Court has pulled up litigants for negligence in follow-up of their case and said they cannot blame their lawyers for not keeping them abreast with case developments as they themselves need to adopt a more vigilant attitude. Justice MV Muralidaran took to the above stance while dismissing a civil revision petition by litigants that challenged a sub-court order that dismissed their plea for condoning the delay of 1,600 days in filing an application to set aside an ex-parte decree as they were not informed earlier of the court order. The court stated: “The parties ought to be vigilant in court proceedings and it is the duty of the parties to conduct the case and contact their advocate properly. In this case, the petitioners stated that they approached their counsel, but were informed that the case is pending. But it is their bounden duty that they would appear before the court regularly without absenting themselves and verify about the status of the case.” In the current c...