Vacations Spent To Write Judgments, Judges Don't Get Weekend Holidays Too; People Who Criticise Don't Realise This : Justice BR Gavai

An interesting discussion regarding the vacations of judges took place in the Supreme Court during the hearing of a case when Justice BR Gavai revealed that vacations are mostly used to write judgments in complex matters.

Justice Gavai further stated that people who criticise judges for vacations do not realise that they do not get holidays even on Saturdays and Sundays due to conferences and other assignments.

The discussion took place when the bench comprising Justices Gavai and Sandeep Mehta was hearing the suit filed by the State of West Bengal against the Union Government over the registration of FIRs by the CBI. While posting the matter tomorrow, Justice Gavai suggested that the arguments be completed before the Court closes for summer recess on May 19 so that the judgment can be written during the vacation.

This invited a lighter vein comment from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who said, "I request your lordships to not waste vacation on any matter. Because your lordships are dealing with 50-60 matters daily, you deserve a vacation."

"We can write big judgments only during vacations. More than half of our vacation goes in judgment writing," Justice Gavai replied.

"On the lighter side I said, there are better things to do during vacations than writing judgment," SG remarked. "But when do we write judgments?," came Justice Gavai's response. "Long judgments have to be kept for vacations. That is the standard practice," Justice Mehta supplemented.

"Those who criticise that the judges of the High Court and Supreme Court take long vacations, they don't know how the judges function," SG stated.

"People who criticise, they don't realise that we don't have holidays on Saturday and Sunday also. There are other assignments, functions, and conferences. You also have to read the files," Justice Gavai stated.

"It is the toughest job in the country," Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal said.

Recently, there has been a lot of public discussion regarding the vacations of the judges, with many on social media questioning the practice by contrasting the working days of the courts with the case pendency statistics. Judges have responded to this public criticism quite often.

In 2021, the then Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said that it was difficult to accept the false narrative that the judges have an "easy life".

"We continue to work even during the Court holidays, do research and author pending judgments. Therefore, when false narratives are created about the supposed easy life led by Judges, it is difficult to swallow," the then CJI NV Ramana said. 

The present Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said in a public event that people criticise judges over vacations without realising their tight work schedule.

“All of us are criticized for the vacations we have. They all say, 'inko chutti bahut jyada milti h'. People don't understand that judges work all seven days of the week. Our district judges work on every single day, even on Saturdays and Sundays they have to do legal aid camps or they have to do other administrative work,” CJI Chandrachud said.

However, CJI Chandrachud also stressed the need for a rethink on vacations, proposing the exploration of alternatives such as flexi-time for lawyers and judges. He stressed the need to initiate a discussion with the bar on this aspect.

Also Read - Courts Are Closed But Is Justice On Leave? Revisiting The Debate On Judicial Vacations