Madras High Court Seeks Bar Associations' Opinion On Doing Away With Vacations, Keeping Courts Open Throughout The Year

The circular issued by M Jothiraman, Registrar General of Madras High Court says that the Committee to monitor the implementation of the Resolutions adopted in the Chief Justices' Conference has decided to hear the bar associations to get their opinions on the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee On Personnel, Public Grievance, Law and Justice regarding functioning of courts all year round.

The Parliamentary Committee had suggested that instead of keeping the courts shut completely and all judges going on vacations at the same time, judges could take leave at different times allowing courts to be kept open always. This would thus ensure that benches are always available to litigants.

For this, a meeting has been scheduled on February 7^th, 2024 at 5 pm in the Library Annexe Building of the Madras High Court. The bar associations of the Madurai bench can also attend the meeting through video conferencing.

Recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee

The parliamentary committee, in its 133^rd Report, had discussed the concept of vacations in the Supreme Court and the High Court. The committee had noted that on average all the High Courts in the country were functioning for 210 days.

The committee noted that the judicial vacations were often questioned due to the huge pendency of the cases and long delays in disposing of the cases which led to a demand for curtailing the long court vacations and to revise the working hours of the court. Even during deliberations, the committee noted that most of the members agreed that the need of the hour was to not only have an efficient judiciary but also to communicate the judiciary's commitment to meeting the needs and interests of the citizens. Thus, there was a sensitization required against shutting down the courts en mass for a couple of months every year.

The committee also noted that the disposal in the Supreme Court has remained static and though in the year 2022, the number of disposals was more than the number of cases initiated, there were still legacy arrears which came around to 35,000. With respect to the High Courts, the committee had noted that the pendency was humongous.

The committee also acknowledged that the huge pendency was not merely due to court vacations and could be attributable to other reasons including vacancies in the higher judiciary. The committee also opined that there was a need to do away with the colonial legacy of keeping the entire court shut causing inconvenience to the litigants.

Thus, the committee had taken suggestions of former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha, as per whom instead of all judges being on vacation, the judges would take vacations at different times which would allow the courts to be kept open constantly thus having benches at all times to hear the litigants.