No Supreme Court Benches To Be Available During 2022 Winter Vacation: CJI

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Friday said no Supreme Court bench will be available from December 17 till January 1 during the ensuing winter vacations.

“There will be no benches available from tomorrow till January 1,” Justice Chandrachud informed the lawyers present in the courtroom at the outset. Friday is the last working day of the top court before it goes on a two-week winter break. The top court will reopen on January 2, news agency PTI reported.

The issue regarding court vacations has been raised earlier also but judges, including former CJI NV Ramana, had said there is a misconception that judges stay in ultimate comfort and enjoy their holidays.

Delivering the inaugural Justice SB Sinha Memorial Lecture on ‘Life of a Judge’ in Ranchi in July, the then CJI Ramana had said judges spend sleepless nights rethinking their decisions.

“There exists a misconception in the minds of the people that judges stay in ultimate comfort, work only from 10 am to 4 pm and enjoy their holidays. Such a narrative is untrue… when false narratives are created about the supposed easy life led by judges, it is difficult to swallow. The responsibility of judging is extremely burdensome owing to the human implication of the rulings. We continue to work even during weekends and court holidays to do research and author pending judgments. In this process, we miss out on many joys of our lives,” he had said.

Similarly, a former judge of the Delhi High Court, Justice Jayant Nath, had in November last year said that the public perception of courts going on vacations like schools was not correct and that appropriate machinery must be engaged to project their hard work for an “image change”.

“It is a known fact that courts are overburdened with long pending cases. Unfortunately, the perception of a common man is to blame the court for delay in disposal of cases. Much is said about the courts going on vacations, comparing it with school vacations. I can say with full conviction that this public image is not correct,” Justice Nath had said while speaking at his farewell reference organised by the high court on November 9 last year.