Senior lawyers should not argue cases during summer recess, says SC

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said senior lawyers should not argue cases during summer recess.

A bench comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma said junior lawyers should be given opportunities during vacation.

"Senior lawyers should not argue cases during these partial working days," the bench told senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Neeraj Kishan Kaul.

The lawyers were appearing in a plea filed against an order of the National Company Law Tribunal. 

One of the counsels in the matter mentioned the matter seeking adjournment as senior advocate Shyam Divan was not available.

The top court has rechristened its traditional summer vacations as "partial court working days".

The development was a part of an amendment in Supreme Court Rules, 2013, which have now become Supreme Court (Second Amendment) Rules, 2024, notified on November 5.

"The length of the partial court working days and the number of holidays for the court and the offices of the court shall be such as may be fixed by the Chief Justice and notified in the official gazette so as not to exceed 95 days excluding Sundays," read the notification.

The existing system had the Supreme Court taking the summer and winter breaks each year. The apex court, however, was not fully closed during these periods. During summers, "vacation benches" were set up by the Chief Justice to hear important and urgent matters. 

Notably, the term "vacation judge" has now been replaced with "judge" in the newly-amended rules.

According to the recently-published 2025 Supreme Court calendar, partial court working days would start from May 26, 2025 and end on July 14, 2025.