Judiciary should opt out of vacations. The colonial hangover costs petitioners extra money

Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.

Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://theprint.in/subscribe/

So, while commissioning INS Vikrant on 2nd September 2022, as a symbolic step towards removing the colonial mindset, the existing naval ensign that carried the Saint George’s Cross was replaced with a blue octagonal shape that encompassed the national emblem sitting atop an anchor, which depicted steadfastness. The octagonal shape was designed to represent eight directions, symbolizing the multi-directional reach and multi-dimensional operational capability of the Indian Navy, while the twin golden borders surrounding it were said to draw inspiration from Maharaj Chhatrapati Shivaji. Similarly, merging of the flame of the National War Memorial with Amar Jawan Jyoti to renaming cities, major thoroughfares, including Rajpath(Kings way) to Karthavya Path ( Duty way) and the installation of Subhas Chandra Bose’s statue at India Gate, were some symbolic steps to replace obvious vestiges of India’s colonial past. The Supreme Court also observed that it is not mandatory to address the judge as My lord, Your lordship or Your honour signalling an end to this colonial practice.

While these steps are in the right direction as an assertion of Indianness, there are several other colonial legacies that are still practiced without any rationale which come in the way of efficient administration, governance, and delivery of justice.

One of such colonial legacies is the summer vacations enjoyed by various courts across the country. It is reported that at present, the SC has 193 working days annually, High courts 210 days and trial courts 245 days a year. When there are over 71,000 cases pending in SC, it has five vacations in its annual calendar. Summer break of 45 days, winter break of 15 days and Holi vacation of one week and five days’ vacation each for Dussehra and Diwali.

This is heinous considering that the judicial system in India is under tremendous pressure. As on 22nd July 2022, over 4.3 crore cases are pending in courts across different levels of the judiciary. Of them, 86% are pending in subordinate courts, 13.81% in High Courts.

No. cases pending in various courts are as follows (22.07.2022):

Source: Law minister’s statement in Parliament on 02.08.2022 and data provided by National Judicial Grid

It is said that summer vacations were granted to courts in colonial rule, to enable the British judges to visit England during summer to spend time at home with their families. In those days, travel was by sea, and it took several weeks to reach England. 

However, this practice is still continued as a colonial legacy and no serious efforts are made to put an end to this practice despite a staggering number of court cases running into crores pending in various courts.

It is reported that currently there are 97309 court cases which are more than 30 years old. It is heart wrenching to note that many victims seeking justice and many accused  facing trial die during the trial period itself making a mockery of the justice system .

It is high time the lawmakers “belled the cat” and took steps to get rid of this colonial mindset of continuing with the vacation to the courts and focus on cutting down the pendency and delivering speedy justice to victims.

There is this timeless quote of Justice William E Gladstone “ Justice delayed is Justice denied”. Who knows this better than the judiciary itself?