Judges of the Supreme Court in India sit for 200 days a year and their vacations are spent thinking about the cases, reading about the laws, and reflecting on the impact of their work on society, the Chief Justice of India, DY Chadrachud, stated at a media house conclave recently.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud stated in the conclave that “People see us sitting in court from 10:30 am to 4 pm. We handle between 40 and 60 cases every day in the Supreme Court. The work that we do during this time in the Supreme Court is a fraction of the work which we do. In order to be ready for the cases which will come up the next day, you spend an equal amount of time in the evenings reading for the next day. Our judgments are in reserve,” the CJI said, adding, “So on Saturdays typically, every judge of the Supreme Court will sit down and dictate judgments. On Sunday, all of us sit down and read for Monday. Without exception, every judge of the Supreme Court works for seven days a week.”
The CJI then went on to list how supreme courts across the world work compared to the Indian top court.
“When it comes to holidays, look at what the other supreme courts across the world are doing. The American Supreme Court sits about eight to nine days a month, annually 80 days, and doesn’t sit for three months in a year. The Australian High Court sits about two weeks a month, annually less than for a hundred days. No sittings for two months. Singapore sits for 145 days a year. The UK is almost the same as us. The Supreme Court of India sits for about 200 days every year.”
He stated that “What people don’t know is, that most of the time in the vacation is spent on preparing judgments which you have kept in reserve because you’ve just no time during the week when you are working seven days just trying to keep ahead of the curve to deal with your cases.”
Further, “So, vacation time is very well spent The last vacation, the winter vacation, I was sitting with my five judicial clerks keeping up abreast on all the judgments I had to deliver. Yes, at the end of it, in the summer vacation, we get a week off with our family to travel. But another thing which we must bear in mind is judging is not about just disposing of cases.”
The chief justice concluded by stating that “It’s not just about the statistics. It’s about thinking through your cases. It’s about reading the law, reading about where the law is going in other jurisdictions, and thinking about where you want our society to be in terms of the output which you are going to produce. So unless you give your judges time to introspect, reflect, think about the work which you are going to do, you are not going to have a quality of justice.”
