National Lockdown: NGT Cancels Summer Vacation; Will Function For Entire Month Of June [Read Notification]

In a notification issued today, the Tribunal said that the decision has been taken in order to make up for the loss of working hours and to obviate the hardship faced by the lawyers and litigants.

Notably, all the courts in India restricted their functioning to hear only urgent cases in view of the nationwide lockdown announced by the PM on March 24. Since the lockdown period has now been extended till May 3, the Competent Authority has modified the NGT Calendar to order that:

"The summer vacations for the NGT as scheduled for the month of June 2020, stand cancelled. The NGT would be fully functional for the whole month of June 2020, save for Saturdays, Sundays and Gazetted Holidays. The Registry of NGT shall be functioning on all Saturdays as well, except second Saturday."

This is subject to further modifications, if and when fresh directions are issued by the Government.

A copy of the notification has been supplied to the Registrars of all the zonal benches of NGT.

The Delhi High Court has cancelled its summer vacations and has decided that both the High Court as well as the subordinate courts will remain operational in the entire month of June. The Telangana High Court has also resolved to cancel the summer vacation for High Court and all subordinates Courts.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) has requested the Supreme Court to "partially cancel" the Summer vacations and conduct hearings between the period of May 18, 2020 and June 26, 2020.

Read Notification