Do SC, HCs judges vacation too much?

• Terming court vacations a “colonial legacy”, a parliamentary panel has recommended that High Court judges take turns going on vacation to tackle the mounting pendency of cases.

The Background

• The Parliamentary Standing Committee presented its 133rd report on "Judicial Processes and their reform" to both the Houses of the Parliament.
• It noted that for reducing pendency of cases, there is a need to have a multi-pronged strategy.
• It stated that vacations in the judiciary are a ‘colonial legacy’.
• The entire court going on vacation causes deep inconvenience to the litigants.
• It reiterated a suggestion made by former Chief Justice of India R M Lodha on court vacations earlier.
  • The former CJI suggested that individual judges should take their leave at different times throughout the year.
  • As a result, the courts are constantly open and there are always benches present to hear cases.

Reasons behind demand for doing away with court vacations

• The “huge pendency of cases in the courts”
• The inconvenience faced by the litigants during court vacations

Is this the first time that the Centre has expressed such a view?

• The central government has brought up the issue of court vacations earlier too.
• In December, 2022, then Law Minister Kiren Rijiju criticized the judiciary for taking long vacations even as pending cases hit record levels every year.
• He said that the problem cannot be resolved until a “new system” on the appointment of judges was put in place.
• The government is learned to have requested High Courts to fix the period of vacations to ensure that courts functioned for at least 222 working days.
• However, the parliamentary panel found that High Courts functioned for only 210 days on average.

For how long do Indian courts go on vacation currently?

• The current working days for the judiciary are
  • Supreme Court: 193 days/year
  • High Court: 210 days/year
  • Trial Courts: 245 days/year
• The Supreme Court breaks for its annual summer vacation, which is typically for seven weeks starting at the end of May and reopens in July.
• The Supreme Court also takes week-long breaks for Dussehra and Diwali, and two weeks at the end of December.

India vs Other Countries

• Despite the vacations the Supreme Court has many more working days compared to the highest courts in other countries.
• For instance, the United States Supreme Court sits for 79 days with no oral arguments scheduled for a few months in between.
• The apex courts in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Singapore sit for a total of 97, 189, and 145 days respectively.

What happens to important cases during court vacations?

• Generally, a few judges are available to hear urgent cases even when the court is in recess.
• “Vacation Benches” comprising two or three judges hear important cases that cannot wait.
• Cases such as bail, eviction, etc. often find precedence in listing before vacation benches.
• It is also not uncommon for courts to hear important cases during vacations.
• Examples
  • In 2015, a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court heard the challenge to the constitutional amendment setting up the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) during the summer vacation.
  • In 2017, a Constitution Bench held a six-day hearing in the case challenging the practice of triple talaq during summer vacation.