Court Vacations
Context- Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has said people feel that long vacations taken by courts is inconvenient for those seeking justice.
What are court vacations?
The Supreme Court has 193 working days a year for its judicial functioning, while High Courts function for approximately 210 days, and Trial Courts for 245 days.
Supreme Court and High Courts have power to structure their calendars according to the service rules.
What happens to important cases during vacations?
Generally, a few judges are available for hearing urgent cases even when the court is in recess. The combination of 2 or 3 judges called Vacation Benches, hear important cases.
Why are court vacations criticized?
- Extended frequent vacations is not a good optics, especially in light of mounting pendency of cases and snail’s pace of Judicial Proceedings.
- The Summer breaks perhaps begin because European Judges of Federal Court of India, found Indian Summers too hot. Winter breaks were taken for Christmas.
- Justice Malimath Committee, setup for reforms in Criminal Justice System, suggested that the period of vacations should be reduced by 21 days i.e. Supreme Courts should work for 206 days and High courts for 231 days every year.
- In its 230th report, Law Commission of India called for reforms in this system. It said ‘“considering arrears, vacations in the higher judiciary must be curtailed by at least 10 to 15 days”. It also recommended on increasing court working hours by at least half an hour.
(Credits- Times of India)
What are the arguments in favour of court vacations?
- Legal Fraternity, strongly defends long breaks. Lawyers have often argued that in a profession that demands long working hours and intellectual rigour, vacations are must needed for rejuvenation.
- Judges typically work for 10 hours on a daily basis. Apart from days work, they spent few hours in preparing for the next day.
- A frequently made argument is that judges utilise the vacations to write judgements.
- Another argument is that judges do not take leave of absence like other working professionals when the court is in session. Family tragedies and Health issues are rare exception.
- Legal experts also point out that cutting down on court vacations will not see a drastic decrease in the pendency of cases, at least in the Supreme Court. The issue of pendency relates largely to legacy cases that need to be tacked systemically.
What are causes behind pendency of case?
- An improvement in literacy levels, population growth and formulation of citizen-friendly tools like PIL have resulted in a huge influx of cases in courts.
- The courts are working below their sanctioned strength. The delay in appointments is increasing vacancies.
- A lot of paperwork needs to be done on every case which sometimes creates unnecessary delays.
- Lawyers are sometimes found indulging in collusive corruption especially at subordinate levels in order to drag the case. Moreover, the lawyers also demand frequent adjournments.
- Police Personnel are sometimes seen complacent in filing charge sheets and conducting speedy investigation which creates a delay in delivering timely judgement.
- Law school focus on developing lawyers not focus on building future members of the Judiciary
Way Forward- Using Technology for effective case management, All India Judicial Service and Increase in number of trial judges will go a long way in solving the problem of pendency.
Source- Indian Express
NEWS- Court Vacations : What are arguments for and against judges taking breaks?
Syllabus- Mains; GS-2; Judiciary
