Supreme Court of India

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice S A Bobde on Thursday announced that the Supreme Court will have a vacation bench during the week-long Holi break, a first in its 70-year-old history.

The SC works for 193 days a year and has a six-week summer break, a British legacy, a two-week winter break and closes for a week each for Holi, Dussehra and Diwali festivals. The high courts work for 210 days because they have shorter summer and winter breaks. The trial courts, where around 2.6 crore cases are pending, work the longest — 245 days a year.

During mentioning of a petition for hearing on Friday by advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan as her client’s protection from arrest was ending on March 13, which falls during the Holi break, CJI Bobde said, “We may keep a vacation bench during the Holi holidays as there are some matters which require urgent hearing. The court, though, will not sit on Holi.”

Till the late 1990s, a single vacation bench used to hold court twice a week during the summer vacations. Gradually, the frequency was increased to three days a week and then it started sitting daily. With more cases pouring in during the summer vacation, the number of vacation benches was increased to two and then to three.

In 2006, during Justice Y K Sabharwal ’s tenure as CJI, the 10-week summer vacation was curtailed to seven weeks in consultation with bar associations. Thereafter, then CJI P Sathasivam attempted to reduce it to four weeks, but he faced strong opposition both from judges and advocates.

During Justice R M Lodha’s tenure as CJI in 2014, the 1966 SC Rules were amended and the summer break reduced from 10 weeks to seven weeks. “It would be ideal to reduce the summer break to four weeks,” an ex-CJI told TOI.

In 2017, the SC had set up three vacation benches for disposal of urgent cases, including those where poor accident survivors and kin of victims were waiting for years to get compensation. But given the reluctance of senior advocates and outstation lawyers to take up cases during the summer break, multiple benches became unnecessary. In the last two years, only one vacation bench has been sitting to deal with a small number of cases that get listed during the summer break.

Almost a month before the SC closes for summer break in mid-May, in Court No.1, the CJI can be seen requesting advocates to argue cases requiring long hearing during the summer break. But, only a handful have accepted the offer.

