No Proposal To Abolish Practice Of Summer Vacations In Courts, Says Govt

Minister of State for Law and Justice PP Chaudhary has made it clear in the Lok Sabha that the government does not have under its consideration any proposal to abolish/curtail the practice of summer vacation in the courts.

He was replying to a query made by MP Prataprao Jadhav.

The MP also wanted to know the ‘efforts made by the Government to remove that mentality in courts, which is continuing since British period, so that democratic system can be evolved in courts’.

The minister told the House that the duration of vacations is governed by the rules/regulations framed by the high courts concerned and the Supreme Court and the vacation/working days/working hours in the district /subordinate courts are regulated by the respective high court and the government has no role in it.

Quoting the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, the minister said the length of summer vacation and the number of holidays for the court and the offices of the court shall be such as may be fixed by the Chief Justice and notified in the official gazette so as not to exceed 103 days, excluding Sundays not falling in the vacation and during court holidays.

Last week, the apex court had expressed readiness to hear a whopping and unprecedented 5,298 cases, which figure in its notice for ‘Advance Regular Hearing Matters List’, for summer vacation of the court from May 5 to July 2.

Three Constitution benches will sit during the same time to hear grapple with complex issues such as the legality of triple talaq and the right to dignity of Muslim women, WhatsApp’s implications on citizen’s right to privacy and the vexed citizenship tangle in Assam.