Delhi HC rejects PIL to discontinue summer vacations in courts
(UNI) The Delhi High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking to discontinue its summer vacation on the grounds that pendency of cases is mounting and said that the courts do not close as the judges keep working during this time.
A bench comprising Acting Chief Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru turned down the PIL filed by a registered society Praksh India and said the petitioner is not aware of the functioning of the courts as most of the judges write their judgement during this period.
The Court expunged the plea of the society seeking to quash the 2013 circular which notified the vacation period from June 1 to 30.
The bench said the courts keep working as vacation judges sit regularly. Most of the judges spend their time studying the cases and writing judgements, the bench observed.
Saying that courts cannot be compared to other organisations, the bench also turned down the petitioner’s suggestion that either the judges should avail the vacation on rotation basis like police officers, or the HC should curtail the number of vacation days to 10 or 15, instead of 30 days.
The bench said it is practically impossible to run courts on rotation as there will be absolute chaos if courts function like this.
The petitioner further said the courts should also maintain 210 working days as per the Central government communication.
Appearing on behalf of the society, petitioner Suraj Prakash Manchanda, a retired bank officer, said there is huge pendency of cases across the country including over 60,000 in the Delhi High Court and the Judges and lawyers should not go on vacation as litigants suffer. UNI