SC breaks with past, two benches hear matters during winter break

Breaking with past practice, two benches of the Supreme Court for the first time on Friday heard various cases, including many pending for several years.

The two benches included one headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and another headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel.

As many as 98 matters, most involving insurance claims relating to road accidents and pending for several years, were listed for hearing before the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjasy Kishan Kaul.

The bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit took up 37 matters listed for hearing related to civil disputes or criminal cases.

The Supreme Court witnesses week-long vacations on the festivals of Holi, Dussehra and Diwali, besides a winter break for a fortnight and a seven-week summer break.

During the summer break earlier, besides the vacation bench, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court had heard a batch of petitions challenging the validity of Triple Talaq or oral divorce. The court eventually held it "unconstitutional".

Interestingly, there is nothing to throw light on how the practice of a long summer break and winter break started.

In 2008, Parliament's Standing Committee for the Ministry of Law and Justice had dubbed the practice of a long summer vacation as a "colonial legacy" that was no more relevant and which needed to be done away with.

It had recommended that "given the huge number of cases pending in the Supreme Court, the system of lengthy vacation is better done away with. Reduced vacations will automatically add to the number of working days".

The committee had desired that the top court explore the possibility of increasing its working hours. At present, the apex court functions for four and a half hours daily.

In 2009, the Law Commission had recommended that the number of working days for judges be increased to address the issue of huge pendency of cases.

Recommending that there "must be full utilisation of the court working hours", the Law Commission, in its 230 report submitted in 2009, said: "Considering the staggering arrears (of cases), vacations in the higher judiciary must be curtailed by at least 10 to 15 days and the court working hours be extended by at least half an hour."

--IANS

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