Should ‘Me Lord’ be holidaying when millions of cases are lying pending?

Why should not the privileged vacations be discontinued and the judges be given the same holidays that an average govt employee gets? After all, they are also the servants of the people only.

New Delhi, Dec 20: Long vacations for 'Me Lords' have been receiving quite a lot of public criticism, and for the first time, the issue has reached the House of Elders. During a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre (Amendment) Bill, some MPs questioned the 'colonial legacy' of availing such long vacations by the judges.

Even decades after the British left the country, the system of long summer and winter vacations is being followed by the much-revered Supreme Court and High Courts. Now, there is a growing clamour all around demanding an end to this colonial legacy, especially when pendency of court cases is humongous in the country.

44 million pending court cases

Yes, this is the number of the pending cases in various courts in India. The number is increasing day by day and it may touch 50 million very soon. But how did we get here? No rocket science expertise is needed to answer this question. The courts in India are not only too slow in dispensing justice but also they enjoy a large number of holidays and long vacations. These vacations are available in addition to a number of traditional holidays during Holi, Diwali, etc.

Needless to say more than 73,000 cases are pending before the Supreme Court of India alone but there is no urgency on the part of the highest judiciary in dispensing them in a fair manner. The extent of lethargy and incompetency can be gauged from the fact that some cases keep running for as long as more than three decades in the courts. In fact, there are more than one lakh cases that have been going on for more than 30 years.

Quite astonishingly, the Supreme Court calendar shows week-long vacations during Holi, Dussehra, Muharram and Diwali, amongst others. Then they have fortnight-long vacations during summer and winter seasons.

Why this 'entitlement' mentality?

It's quite evident that long summer and winter vacations in the courts were designed by erstwhile British rulers. They were not here to dispense justice but to rule the country. They did what they thought was fit for their health and wealth. The vacations were meant to keep the British judges in India away from severe weather conditions.

But why should a free India carry forward that burden of legacy even seven decades after Independence? Now that all the judges are from India, where is the need to keep that practice going? Why should not the privileged vacations for courts be discontinued and the judges be given the same holidays that an average government employee gets? After all, they are also the servants of the people! Isn't it?

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